The "Widgetization of our World" [from FOWA]

Back from London and the Future of Web Apps conference.  Thanks to Carsonified for the invite to participate and for putting on a great show. 

From my POV it seems that a major theme out of the event is "the widgetization of our world" - and I don't mean "apps".  My brain is still percolating.  Listening to the breadth of chats during the three day event, it has really hit me that success in the future hinges on understanding the nodes that make up the network - whether this is data, people or organizations. Top down, centralized mechanisms just do not work any more.

Here are just a few examples:

Leisa Rechiert - on Ambient Intimacy
Umair Haque - on the economics of open society and velocity of information
Thor & Lane - on customer service (and customers) as the new marketing
Brian Oberkirk - on productizing relationships and services

My workshop on Friday addressed how we communicate and "market" in this ever increasingly decentralized universe of Social Media. Thanks to everyone who attended and to Brian for joining in on the fun.  I am cleaning up my slides and will upload them to the slideshare group ASAP.

For full coverage make sure to check out Suw , Jennifer and Steph's blogs.  Conference after conference these ladies do an amazing job capturing info for those who cannot attend in person - how *do* they do it!?

[Addendum: and let's not forget that last week was also devoted to two different conferences on Facebook apps - if that is not an indication of the chunking of our world -- what is?]

Comments

[Mel Kirk]

Hey Deb,

Thanks so much for agreeing to speak at the conference and host one of the workshops, we've had nothing but great feedback, so you did a great job. I hope that you enjoyed your time and that we can catch up again soon,

Mel :)

[Mel Kirk]

Hey Deb,

Thanks so much for agreeing to speak at the conference and host one of the workshops, we've had nothing but great feedback, so you did a great job. I hope that you enjoyed your time and that we can catch up again soon,

Mel :)

[Jenny Ambrozek]

Look forward to hearing more as your thoughts gel from the FOWA Conference. It maybe the age of "widgetization" but what struck me reading your post is Stowe Boyd's farsighted January 2006 post suggesting: "The Individual is the New Group".

[deb schultz]

Hi Jenny - the two are related - power of one and bits and bytes of data - it goes hand in hand.

[Ms. Jen]

I guess Mr. Dominick's 9th grade typing class really did come in handy... Or how I can type and listen at the same time at conferences...

If I am not typing then I am drawing, if I am not drawing or typing, then I am twitching and am distracted and thus can't remember a thing later. The transcribing has a two fold purpose, one to keep the ADD from kicking in and two to focus and store the info for later reflection.

Deb, it was great to run into you, even if quickly at FOWA. Keep up the good work.