Deborah Schultz

Supernova

As I have done for the past three years, I am acting as Kevin Werbach's 'eyes and ears' in the physical and digital hallways of Supernova. 

"I put together the first Supernova conference three years ago because, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, we all knew something was happening here, but we didn’t know what it was. My conviction was that underneath all the changes - business becoming increasingly distributed, users becoming more knowledgeable, old industry models collapsing, and everything and everybody becoming networked - is one fundamental phenomenon: decentralization.

At Supernova, we bring together business, government, and technology thought leaders to understand how decentralization and pervasive connectivity are changing our world."

[thanks to Emily for getting the entire quote]

I will be looking out for cool quotes from the IRC, panelists, attendees etc.  All links will be summarized over at the Supernova blog.  I am also roaming the halls with David Weinberger to gather some cool video and with John Furrier's crew from podtech.net for podcasts. 

Catch em all on the Media Center section of the Supernova website.

Technorati tags: supernova2006, supernova, social+software, web+2.0

How to start a meme..

Ever wonder how memes get started..so did I..so I asked the guys at Technorati ..stay tuned...

Technorati tags: FirsTag, Supernova2006

Influence - how did I miss this

MItch Ratcliffe has a great "recent" piece (ok, it is a month old, but that is recent everywhere but the
blogosphere) about Influence in the Attention Economy over in his Zdnet column. 

"Influence...is the productive feature of the networked economy it is most important to measure and understand. Influence takes work—it is work in the networked economy—and we know how to measure the value of human effort.

If you are confused about social networks, attention, and intention and are wrestling with the question "where the heck are my customers online?" - Read it now.

Technorati tags: influence networks, newmarketing, attention,

You go girl!

Who says blogging is  "old-hat" and passe? Not I. So, if you are ....

• Feeling overwhelmed and resentful as you attempt to keep up with all your feeds and all the great content hidden in the corners of the blogosphere?

• Ready to throw up your arms and give up?

• Ruing the day this blogging stuff was ever invented?

Then make sure you read this story from the Christian Science Monitor on the power blogging brings to the women of Saudi Arabia.  It will remind you of what fueled this blogging/user generated content phenomenon and the power self-expression and freedom can yield.

Unfortunately, many of the woman's sites are now being blocked by the conservative Saudi government. One woman named Jo has a blog entitled "Kingdom of Lunacy!" says:

"I've been blogging since April 2005. It's a way to vent out my frustrations and to write," said Jo, who asked only that her first name be used. "My family knows that I have a site, but they don't have a concept of what blogging is."

I particularly love this post because it captures both life in Suadi Arabia and the beauty of blogging. Jo describes how she is driven to a university ceremony, can't be in the same room with the men and meets another woman who turns out to be a fellow anonymous blogger.  Her blog is a saga.  Her blog and SaudiEve's is often shut down by the government and Jo now has to sneak out of her house to blog to avoid the wrath of her family. 

Call me an idealist (yes, there are a few of us New Yorkers who can claim this trait), but every now and then a story pops up that reminds me of how lucky I am to live in a country with freedom of speech and how proud I am to be involved in a technology that can actually bring about some real change.   

To all the women bloggers in Saudi Arabia - I have just one thing to say - You go girls!

Technorati Tags: women,   blogging,   blogosphere, 

Agency 2.0

I was catching up on some feeds and blogs this weekend and found a great post at the Organic weblog about the future of the Interactive Agency - aka Agency 2.0.  It includes a link to a nice presentation by none other than Clement Mok, where he discusses  how traditional "advertising is broken"  and the importance of integrating across channels. So I thought I would pass it along.

He claims:

I think technology-enabled marketing is ravaging the advertising industry. This focus on alternative channels is totally turning the industry upside down. It will change many of the rules of what we think advertising is, what marketing is, and what design is.

Amen!  And he recognizes that the force driving this trend is none of other than the customer.

...customers are now more in control, telling the world what they think of a particular product or brand. Marketers no longer have full control of messaging their brands. Principles of Web 2.0 are now gaining ground, offering more control and power to users. Ad agencies are ill prepared to adapt to these technological changes, let alone harness the use of these new technologies.

Hopefully, the Agencies are listening - or they will be left in the dust as their ad dollars go directly to the source as their customers realize they can't deliver on many of their old 'smoke and mirror' promises.

Technorati Tags:  newmarketing, Marketing, Customer, Web2.0

Respecting my time

  at EWR baggage 
  Originally uploaded by debs.

If only all customer communication could be this straightforward.  This is a simple solution to an annoying problem for the customer who stands and waits and waits to learn that their bag is indeed lost.

I bet this was done by a baggage handler who was tired of getting calls from lost luggage folks who were standing with an irate customer next to them and wondering if they were done unloading a flight.