I have now had a few days to reflect on Supernova and I realize that what was most striking to me was how the event was emblematic of the intersection of theory and practice. You had Weinberger and Keen arguing the finer points of informaiton & internet culture and Clay Shirky discussing the Love Economy, in the same room where start-ups like Pando unveiled their peer-to-peer content delivery platform (bottomline - cheap and fast) and Spock demonstrated their wicked people search app (u can never hide again).
This "theory into practice" reality has been steadily bubbling up over the past few months. I am not referring to the froth of investments or purchases but to the fact that individuals and companies are building stuff that takes the concepts of connection and expression and are building living breathing entities. In Wednesday's Innovation session TechSoup demonstrated how they use Second Life to recruit volunteers and Rolando Brown talked (via video) on how he uses social media tools to promote the Hip-Hop Association. We also have Google announcing they will pay developers to make cool stuff and Facebook opening the world to its platform.
Five years ago, the pundits gathered at conferences and discussed the [dramatic pause] changes the Internet would bring about in the future. Today, we are living in this future. Sure, it's messy and there are territorial arguments and shifts in power. It is still too difficult for users to understand the value in a lot of these tools and how to apply them to their daily lives, but cool stuff *is* happening. Whether it is live streaming, "microblogging" or networking with people based on your [gratuitous links ahead] travel schedule, love of dogs, or employer. Messy chaotic stuff is indeed happening. I can't tell ya who will "win" or be bought or just plain survive. That is not my focus. I am in it for the long haul. I am in it to create cool stuff that changes how we interact and relate.
The cool stuff is indeed out there, it is just a bit harder to find amidst the noise. Yes - "the noise" factor.
When I find myself fed up with the noise, (I live both online and in Silicon Valley. It's noisy here and I do get fed up sometimes), I try to remind myself that it is indeed an interesting time and focus on the individuals, companies and causes that are taking all this social media stuff and smashing it together in fun new ways. Who will be standing in five years. Beats me. I just know that I will still be taking my flickr photos, sharing my playlists with my nieces and nephews and hopefully getting email offers from the Vendors I *choose* to allow to contact me!
Here's to the future.
Thus ends my Pollyanna post for the day. Thanks for playing.
I was thinking about you at Supernova as I was attending the IABC (iabc.com) international conference this week and hearing more talk about blogs, social media and wisdom of crowds. So we are starting to see how many companies are using some of these tools -- well, those that have been around a while at least -- for connecting with customers. It will be indeed interesting to see how we do apply more of this cool stuff to the benefit of better work.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | June 28, 2007 at 05:08 PM
Valeria - did you see anything interesting at IABC or was it all "get a blog" and your problems will be solved..;)
Posted by: deb schultz | June 29, 2007 at 11:09 AM
"The cool stuff is indeed out there, it is just a bit harder to find amidst the noise. Yes - "the noise" factor. "
-Deb
Great post Deb... the great thing is, there won't be an end to the noise or the chaos. The subjects and topics and discussions might change, but there will still be the churn and the fun and the energy of this community. When you talk about being in it for the long haul, I think you are reffering to the community (whatever form it takes then and now and next)
"As I've said many times, the future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed."
-WIlliam Gibson
Posted by: Sean Bohan | June 30, 2007 at 11:08 AM
Sean - geez - you had to bring distribution into the mix...heh
Posted by: deb schultz | July 10, 2007 at 10:01 PM