Deborah Schultz

Snackbyte - social ball of string

Everyone is all 'aTwitter' about Google's FriendConnect  announcement and last week's MySpace & Facebook announcements. I am ALL for open social standards.

However...

More social connections without greater intelligence built in is just gonna be more noise"

or if you prefer an equation:

 

I got my hands full tracking my fragmented world as it is.  Luckily as everyone races to claim the open data, social graph charge, there are those thinking about enabling better, smarter management tools that start with ME - the user/consumer/individual/PERSON. 

Related posts:

Dan Farber, Mashable, RWW, and Charlene Li

Related events this week: IIW,  Data Sharing Summit

 

Seriously, we can do MORE

Update 5/5: - Umair has a nice discussion going on over here that started right after I spoted this - it must be in the air! I promise to do a follow-on post as my post seems to have struck a nerve, basedo n all the comments below - yeah!]

Confession: For the past few months I have been growing increasingly bored and frustrated with the shortsightedness of many on the power and impact of social software for business and connectedness between people and ideas.  Yes, I am oft too earnest and impatient on this stuff - but I mean - why settle?

The last few weeks have really driven that feeling home. Time to reflect on long airplane trips, meeting with folks doing BIG stuff around the world, taking a pause from the echo chamber and some inspiring conversations with some really smart folks, have emboldened me to finally write some of this down. Many overheard conversations at Web2Expo yesterday further added to my feeling of malaise.  I am dropping this rant quickly but promise to focus more in these topics in the coming weeks and months:

• The social web and web2.0  - c'mon, this is so much more than throwing sheep and twittering that we are stuck in airports.  As I have ranted on this before, in various ways, if you *only* look at these tools as a bigger megaphone for communication you are not looking hard enough! Think real innovation, business and cultural transformation!

• Back in September, I was sitting with a friend at a conference  and he said it best: "never before have so many done so little with so much" [I will provide attribution once/if I get approval from him]

• The power of tech to bring people together is REAL and VITAL [my trip to Israel reminded me of this]

• This is only the beginning of some really cool stuff - the beginning. Per Clay's point yesterday: "the size of our collective cognitive surplus is so large that just 1% participation can bring about HUGE change. 

• How do we encourage and nurture greater participation and develop an "architecture of participation" [nice turn of phrase clay - more on this to come] that benefits business, cultural and political innovation.

• O'reilly yesterday finally discussed using this stuff to solve big problems - as the pied piper for many developers - I thank you for leading them to a higher cause -  hope they hear you.

Now, I am not saying we have all the answers or even know how any of this will pan out.  Existing infrastructures [technical, financial, organizational and cultural] mean certain changes will be slow while others will circumvent the roadblocks that stand in their way. 

What I do know is that if you do not ask the right questions up front and reach for the sky - well - you just ain't gonna get very far.

---------------

This post is a nod to Greg and my work designing and launching the Info Center - the project that is still my touchstone for the power and promise of integrating the physical with the digital at the intersection of technology, people and business -  "saving lives, baby, saving lives"]

[Addendum: As I was writing this I noticed Umair's post.  Lately, we are channeling each other on this stuff - I nod to his eloquence and ability to lay out the issues].

Hiding behind the link...

I have been following the latest blogging flame wars from my current travels abroad. It has afforded me an interesting perch from which to observe the current state of affairs in the insider-world of blogging. As usual Anil has hit the nail on the head as he referred to posts that Mena wrote a while back on the very subject of "blogger civility".  It is hard to watch something you love get corrupted and for someone as talented as Kathy to be physically threatened.  Geez - she is one of the truly unique voices who advocates for the people using the tools.

Here in Israel, everyone is really waking up to the power of blogging and embracing it wholeheartedly (think blogosphere about 18 months ago).  They are linking, commenting, vlogging and podcasting - and they are taking the tools to an whole new level [more on this later].  All this enthusiasm and creativity has helped balance the flames and reminds me that my mantra still holds true:

Technology changes, human nature does not.

Plenty has already been written and reflected upon.  So, I will simply add that the onus is on all of us who love this great new landscape of social media to take the high road, police ourselves and insure that those who were not hugged enough as children do no get a platform from which to threaten and bully.

Ain't technology grand

Nice to see that maybe, just maybe the Valley tech geeks (whom I love and have been adopted by as "half-geek") are starting to realize that people who "don't get it", actually may not get it, because they really don't see a need for some of the stuff that is coming out of  "web 2.0"  land at the moment.  There is an entire universe of people who still don't know what a blog, myspace, youtube or flickr are, let alone digg or delicious. Maybe these companies are not doing a good enough job COMMUNICATING the VALUE of what is being created or-big gulp-they have nothing of inherent value to a potential customer base.

[in case you missed my point - that communicating word is code for good--aka--authentic marketing]

What is exciting to me about today's tech stuff is that much of it is focused on  making it easier than ever for non-geeks to express and create and build cool stuff. 

I want even more tools.  But I want em even easier to use. 

I want to be able to 'drag and drop' and 'mash' and 'smash' stuff  together without asking for help from my developer buddies or spending an entire weekend learning code (or Ruby).  I don't want to have to learn CSS (yes, I know it is awesome and easy, but not easy enough).  I want tools that work as easily as scissors and pens and paint and I want to be able to find other people or businesses with like minded scissors and pens and paint. That may not be enough to sustain a lot of large businesses, but it sure would put the tools directly in the hands of the creators and make it really interesting to see what gets "pasted together".

As for the Web 2.0 madness, yes, there are a lot of tools and products masquerading as companies.  Nothing inherently wrong with that (as long as they don't all expect to be the next Google) or are creating something of value that they believe in and are (perish the thought) having fun while they do it!  It is still intriguing to me, even after almost two years of living in the Valley, that there is often a (faux) expectation of 'purity of vision' demanded of companies here that does not even cross the mind of many entrepreneurs on the "other coast".   But I will leave that topic for another post.

OK - I am not actually sure where the above rant came from, but I think I got it all out of my system now. move along.

The ghost of Business Week covers past

It's deja vu all over again - hype and more hype (we have not yet reached hype, hype and more hype, stay tuned).  Which got me thinking that it might be time for a trip down memory lane. 

So for some real fun, I suggest you start in 1997 with headlines including; "The Digital Frontier", "Internet Communites","Webcasting" and "How long can it last", then click on over to 1998  for "Zap! How the year 2000 Bug will Hurt the Economy", "Doing Business in the Internet Age", and "How Worried Should You Be?  followed by 1999, which includes, "High Tech's Hot Hand", "E-Business, What Every CEO Should Know?  Scandal on Wall Street" and "Is Greed Good?".  FInally, make sure to revisit 2000 and the AOL/Time Warner merger deal, "The New Economy" and The Wall Street Hype Machine.

[Note: It's a great visual snapshot of all the thumbnail covers, but alads, copyright laws prevent me from posting the images here --you'll have to click on over]

 

A sure sign we are in a mini-web 2.0 boom

I just couldn't let this one pass...Om Malik reports that over at SimplyHired you can now search to find a dog friendly employer.

Can you say 1998?

DNS Mapping & Domain Transfer Hell

As someone who has been basking in the shadowy aura of techno geeks for the last ten years and spending much of my life as a "translator" between gearheads and business people, I consider myself relatively well versed in certain aspects of certain areas of technology. Alas--someone non-techie has to communicate DNS mapping and other overly complex web-based URL association to the general public in *english*. --aha it's really a techie conspiracy to rule the world forever.