Technology360

Friends fatigue?

I have accounts on a few social networking sites -- Skype (which I'd describe as a social VOIP service), LinkedIn, Facebook -- each of which involves networking among friends and acquaintances.  I've also checked out Gather and MySpace.  Except for Skype, which I use for actual phone calls, my use of other social systems has been mostly responding to various requests from others to be added.  While many of my colleagues are enthusiastic about the possibilities for relationship building, especially for public media, so far for me personally it's been more chore than treat.  Perhaps that's just the natural result of it being early in the game.

Om Malik has a couple of interesting posts relating to this.  See Why do we have Facebook Fatigue? and  Can privacy be a premium service?.

Update 31 July 2007:
Wired editor Chris Anderson writes about Why I Gave Up on Second Life.  Link: The Long Tail. --Dennis

Adoption of Social Media is tough in Public Radio - what about a virus?

Rob Paterson has a continuation post of sorts of one to which I linked earlier this week (If markets are conversations - if media will be conversations - then what will we do?) and to a new report on public radio social media experiments to which I also linked.  Check it out.  Link:  FASTForward Blog.  --Dennis

Public Radio's Social Media Experiments

Jake Shapiro points to (and writes the forward for) a new report of this title from the Center for Social Media at American University by Abbey Blake Levenshus.  Here's the executive summary:

How are public radio stations taking advantage of social media tools to expand their base and enhance their service to their mission? Through a survey of U.S. public radio stations and case studies of four stations successfully using social media, this study provides a snapshot of the realities for U.S. public radio stations wanting to use social media to engage audiences. Results of a survey of 77 station staff, along with case studies of four stations’ social media projects, reveal ambivalence about social media. Station executives both seek to explore social media opportunities and also resist experiments, because of lack of knowledge, because of resource allocation, and because of institutional culture. Current experiments at early-adopter stations demonstrate that social media experiments do require resource reallocation and still lack persuasive and appropriate metrics but nonetheless have returned significant benefits to the stations, particularly in terms of serving the core mission of public broadcasting: contributing to a rich and participatory public culture. More methodical goal setting and appropriate metrics will permit stations to document both their successes and their challenges.

Link:  Center for Social Media (pdf).

If markets are conversations - if media will be conversations - then what do we do?

Rob Paterson describes working with two public broadcasting organizations, writing:

... I think that it is clear that not only will markets be conversations where consumers have a voice - think Dell Hell and Jeff Jarvis - but also the media. The media will have to listen as well. They will have to host conversations as well as have them. Their relationship with their listeners, viewers and readers will have to change as it will have to change in all enterprises. They will have o change their voice and their relationship with their customers and inside.  ¶  The challenge is - How do you do this when you never have done this before? For it’s not just about will - it’s about habit. It’s about learning a whole new way of being. This post is an introduction to how hard this is to do. How hard it is when you want to do this but don’t know how.  ¶  Over the last 2 years I have had the honor of working with NPR and with some stations in both TV and radio as they struggle to make the same shift from “One to Many” to Hosting a Trusted Space where Many to Many could have a safe conversation. As a system we learned what we had to do and how important it was to do this for our future. The new challenge is - to find out how best to put these ideas into action.  ¶  I am working directly with 2 stations right now. KETC, St. Louis and WOSU Columbus. We are struggling with what do we have to do to change our relationship with our audience from a “Kinetic” to a “Participative” relationship? ...

Link:  FASTforward.  Interesting post.  --Dennis

Is Web 2.0 a Manifesto for Anarchism?

David Jennings has a interesting review of a fascinatingly prescient 1973 book by anarchist Colin Ward.  Anarchists have always been symbolized by the round bomb and seen as short on theory.  But read this sample:

... Anarchy in Action is no call to guerilla direct action to undermine the state apparatus. But it was both radical for its time, and prescient. "Anarchists are people who make a social and political philosophy out of the natural and spontaneous tendency of humans to associate together for their mutual benefit," writes Ward near the start of the book. He goes on: "we have to build networks instead of pyramids." So are we all anarchists now, and what does it mean to be an anarchist in the era of Web 2.0? I read this book because I had a hunch that there was a common thread running through old theories and current practice, and I wanted to see how strong this thread might be. ...

Link:  D J Alchemi.  --Dennis

On Social Networks

In The Passive Mass Audience Has Left the Building, Dave Evans has some tips about interactive marketing.  He writes:

... Marketers are moving into social networks, both as participants and platform owners, because they can market in ways not possible in a broadcast environment. Broadcast can reach lots of people, no doubt about it. But to get a message where it really needs to go: on my to-do list or into my friend's inbox with my name in the sender field, you must be part of the social goings-on. You must also market via a platform that allows consumers to add value to your message, to validate that value through friends' approval or disapproval, and to let you know (as a marketer) what worked and what didn't. You can achieve all this in a social network. ...

Link:  ClickZ. 

And see also this related essay from Gary Stein:  Advertising on Social Networks: The Third Wave.  Link:  ClickZ.

More on this topic from Pete Plackshaw:  Meaningful Relationships with Social Networks.  Link:  ClickZ.  --Dennis

Seth Godin on Radio's Future

Mark Ramsey has published (audio and  transcript) an interview with marketing guru Seth Godin (The Dip, Permission Marketing, et al.).  Ramsey calls it the most important thing you'll read this year.  I'm not sure about that -- it's only the end of June -- but it's definitely well worth your time.  Here's a sample (Godin speaking):

... terrestrial radio is a zero-sum game. In fact, it’s worse than a zero-sum game. It is clearly headed towards a dead end. There’s no dip ahead. There’s no breakthrough that’s going to occur.  ¶    But, you have all these assets. You have advertisers. You have access to creators of content like record companies. You have access to some listeners. Why not use those assets, use that leverage to build something new where there may very well be a dip.  If I ran a radio station today, I would say, “How do I get every one of my listeners to sign up so I can have a direct relationship with them by phone and by email? How do I learn what their zip code is? How do I discover what they’re interested in?”  ¶   Because if I could do all those things using the assets I have now, I could find a new dip and get through it. I could be the go-to source for where listeners should go when they want to party, where they should go when they want to go out for dinner, where they should go when they want to buy a car. ...

Link:  hear2.0.  --Dennis

What Wikipedia Can Teach Us About the New Media Literacies

Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, has a very interesting two-part essay with this post's title on his blog.  It's based on a keynote that he gave at this week's National Media Education Conference.  Link:  Confessions of an Aca/Fan, Part 1, Part 2.

CBS buys Last.fm - and what it means

Mark Ramsey writes about the CBS acquisition of Last.fm, one of several next-generation Internet radio services that get smarter by adjusting to listener preferences:

...  Fast-forward two years and you'll see Last.fm integrated in all of CBS's radio websites which, for the first time, will enable customized versions of the analog stations you love - and whatever else your heart desires. Stations that could ultimately be available via mobile technologies. Stations that could theoretically include advertising.  ¶ It is inevitable that radio - or aspects of radio - will become personalized. ...

Link:  hear2.0.

Also see CBS Continues Interactive Strategy With Acquisition of Last.fm.  Link:  Radio World.

And Last.fm, CBS' $280 million hedge for its radio biz?  Link:  GigaOM.

Not unexpectedly, Mark sees this as bad news.   But I think that's true only if the radio industry sits back and does nothing.  Some of us will.  Some of us won't.  The relatively open HD Radio standard opens the door wide for innovation -- not to mention the Net as a new platform -- and surely some of us will step through.  Back in March, I posted a concept for a "many-to-many" radio that could easily be "socialized."  I'd agree with Mark that's the right direction.  Let's get busy.  --Dennis

Clear Channel Expands Mobile Services

Radio World reports:

Clear Channel Radio has introduced customized cell phone applications, extending interactive services aimed at listener cell phones.  ¶  Listeners of several Clear Channel stations in New York City can now send text messages into the studio, participate in contests, receive an alert before their favorite song plays, make requests and dedications, and view the last 10 songs played on participating stations. ...

Thanks to Scott Weatherly.  --Dennis