Social media goes dark on Palo Alto plane crash

February 18, 2010

Its comforting to see that there is still some common decency left despite the seemingly total transparency that social media facilitates.

Yesterday the pilot and passengers of a small aircraft were killed when their plane hit some power lines and crashed into a Palo Alto daycare (fortunately it was empty) – so far, not a big story. But the pilot and passengers happened to be Tesla employees, and of course the conclusion most people would jump to is that it must have been senior execs at the hot EV start-up, i.e. big story (at least in the melting pot of Silicon Valley).

But despite the fact that the names of those who died was quickly discovered by a number of blogs and reporters, not a single one Tweeted them until almost 24 hours later! Its common decency to give the authorities time to inform the next of kin, and I am increasingly wondering whether common decency and social media mix; it seems, at least so far, that they do.

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Posted by warrickt

Gin, TV, Social Surplus and 4-year olds

April 28, 2009

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I have a fascination with the state of the newspaper industry and its impending demise…it serves me well as a proxy for ‘old media’ in general. Its not the printing press, the TV screen, the glossy magazine cover or the stream of mindless manufactured hit records that I take issue with but rather the seemingly intractable belief that we, the consumer, are happy doing just that; consuming.

In Clay Shirky’s recent speech at Web 2.0 (posted here) he talks about cognitive surplus as an asset that is manifesting itself today in the way we now choose not only to consume, but also to produce and share; with the latter two beyond the control of media. Its mind boggling to me that executives at old media still don’t understand that people are no longer happy being spoon fed their entertainment, news, what to buy, etc. they want to be empowered to make choices, interact, join the conversation. Is it any surprise how quicly Twitter has become a key faciltator of social commentary….they simply managed to put a tool into peoiple’s hands that made it really easy. Old media seemingly go out of their way to make it hard for us to contribute, share and become a part of the conversation, and because of that they will be the dinosaurs of the 21st century.

As Clay points out, 4-year olds don’t understand why the TV set does’nt have a mouse and a keyboard so they can ask Dora a question as the movie is playing, and when they find out they quickly find something else to do. Its a phenomenon I observe in myself – I used to be happy watching some mindless TV show – but no more. Now I feel that when I am sitting watching TV I am wasting time – using up cognitive surplus that could be channeled to some useful purpose, or at the very least into something that gives me more self-satisfaction. So what is wrong with playing video games, editing Wikipedia articles or simply answering questions via Aarvark? I least I am producing and sharing, much less selfish than simply consuming! We need to learn from our 4-year olds, as how they respond today is only a glimmer of what we can expect in the future. Twitter and their ilk forbode the future of how we will consume, produce and share every aspect of our lives – adapt or die!

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Posted by warrickt

Prescriptive social software & WOM

April 28, 2009

Alice Marwick’s piece on the emergence of prescriptive social software solutions – Brightkite, Loopt, Foursquare, Whrrl, etc. – made me think about how all these products are about mimicking ‘real life’. Take Foursquare – in a nutshell all it really does is provide a mechanism for rewarding us based on places we go to anyway and thus helping us find folks to hang with – replacing the way we used to do things…go there and call up a buddy who lives nearby to see if he/she wants to join you.

The idea of prescriptiive social software as applied to online word of moth marketing and advocacy is really interesting. In ‘real life’ we advocate things as the opportunity arises – in a conversation, when asked our opinion, etc. – but rarely do we go out of our way to advocate something unless the mechanism to do so is put right in front of our noses at the moment we are most likely to be inclined to advocate – at the checkout, when registering the product, etc. Social software allows us to express ourselves with more immediacy – I dont have to save my thoughts for later for example, I can just post them on Twitter as they occur. But there is no real mechanism for organizing all these random thoughts, observations, recommendations, etc. into relevant buckets that can then be digested by our social network when they are in the right zone, and there is no real mechanism ,eyt, for provoding context.

So, does it mean that we will see the emergence of more and more prescriptive social software solutions, each addressing some specific activity we do in real life – exercising, shopping, travelling, raising our kids, etc to solve the context problem? Most start-ups are focusing on simply facilitating social connections- the real basics, but I believe we will have tools that help us organize our social interactions in the same way we organize our own lives.

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Posted by warrickt

Twitter Deficit Disorder

March 12, 2009

Increasingly  these days I hear the gentle chimes of TweetDeck during meetings or on conference calls, followed almost immediately by furtive glances at the laptop or pauses mid-sentence. These folks are clearly suffering from ‘Twitter Deficit’ Disorder’ – which is to say that they are so deprived of information and connectedness that they crave a constant ‘fix’, even if its to the detriment of attentiveness or focus.

I use TweetDeck and I Tweet semi-regularly when I feel I have something interesting and relevant to share.  Usually I share interesting links, rarely I share what I have been up to (as I’m fairly convinced that no one except me wife cares), and more often I click on what others post as away to discover interesting aticles, etc.. But does it enhance my life, make me a better person or mean I am more informed? Not really. Do I ‘get’ Twitter? I recognize it as a broadcast medium and so entirely open and public, thus ideal for ‘following’ those you feel are thought leaders in areas of interest or those that demonstrate they add value to the conversation. But I dont see it as a fundamental part of my day to day working life and so I certainly dont feel the urge to feverishly check every incoming post.

So, are we entering the age of widespread Twitter Deficit Disorder? Watching the crowd and looking at the stream on the TV’s at SXSW would certainly lead me to think so (although I recognize that the SXSW crowsd is definately super-geek).  I find the thought depressing. I can see MD’s pens poised over prescription pads, concerned teachers on the 10 o’clock news and parents shaking their heads in frustration….we are becoming so concerned about what everyone else is up to that we lose sight of the here and now.

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Posted by warrickt

Conversation via Status

February 11, 2009

Fred Wilson recently wrote a post where he observed that status has become the ultimate social gesture.

Assuming that’s true we really need to solve the use case of folks commenting via one platform (e.g. Facebook) on updates made via another (e.g. Twitter), or vice-versa, otherwise you still have conversational ‘islands’ and hinder status becoming truly conversational.

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Posted by warrickt