Community Mobilization

Bust 2.0

The panel is talking about the prospectus of a bust 2.0, where the valuation of the web properties fall and the VC houses are stuck with defunct companies. One of the major points was that the cost of startups are so much less now days with the hardware and networking being inexpensive, and software being nearly free. Community centered spaces and authentic spaces are the items that are going to succeed, and the advent of the Web 2.0 (ruby, ajax, rss, xml) are going to be long term pieces of future web app developments. These app implementations continue to add value to spaces that engage community and help raise value especially in the media spaces. The panelists do not foresee another web bust in part because of the VC industry being slightly more judicious in the investment cycles. Moreover the question is can established large brands incorporate WEB 2.0 apps effectively and actually get their users to engage the tools and further develop community.

SXSW Parties

I must say that as I get ready to finish up my last panel I must reflect on the social scene of SXSW. It is simply amazing, the convergence of the some of the most creative, and influential people. Each year I grow more and more impressed how accessible panelists, presenters, and event key notes are at these after hours events. During my evenings her this year I secured a sizable donation for our Second Life Relay, connected with three other nonprofit agencies, and tracked down my favorite Drupal friend Zack Rosen. I donated to Creative Commons, picked up a very cool upcomming.org Shirt for my wife, and had at lease a 1/2 hour conversation on the virtues of open ID for connected web properties. The work that gets done after 7:00 is equal to the learning that gets done during the day!

Open Knowledge Vs. Closed Knowledge

The tools for openness are transparency are blooming on the web and they are very inexpensive, and wikia is an example. The challenge is ow do you sift through the total of content to allow the cram rise to the top. In the Academic field there is a consideration being paid to the area of open publication for the purposes of getting the ideas out into the open. At the same time the science promotes a lot of discussion and sometimes malicious attention from colleagues. In the publishing field Wired used a WIKI for the creation of content. Their last foray was a collection or foul images and juvenile jokes - not the kind of things that the Wired readers want to see. The hope is the pride of ownership holds the community together and allows community creation to be benevolent. Using reputation and transparency both ways may be another way to help hold the content in line, especially with a social aspect in place.

When Communities Attack

This presentation is taking a look at community attacks on line in the last few years. Part of the internet web community is building up the community its self. So as these communities materialize they gather the energy to ‘attack’. In the case of the Prophet Mohamed cartoons, the majority of post / comment exchange was generated in Yemen and Scandinavia. More important once the comments were identified with geo-tags the tone of the comments became more friendly and tolerant. Anonymity enables people to say nasty things and then have 100 other folks say ‘yea’, it fuels the mob mentality.

Some times people create alternates to start a conversation with them selves. Moreover there are groups that roam from site to site in group attacks. The challenge is how do you deal with the personal attacks if they persist? How do you defend hate speech as free speech. You can take down a forum or a blog but you can’t take down a blogosphere. Trolls love to register more than others. Security is policy so make sure that you have a good policy and stick to it. In such make sure you try to keep out threats, personal data, and posts that are nothing more than pure flame hate.

SXSW Avatar Based marketing

Avatar based marketing – The panel is wrestling with some of the basic questions of identity and brand awareness. The best question that I have heard referred to trademark infringement with avatar names as well as the use of copyrighted materials in the promotion of events, brands, companies, and even life styles. The unique perspective came from Eric of MYV speaking about the decision to not use SL as a platform for the Virtual Laguna Beach project. The comments surrounded the need to go after the platform that holds the highest concentration of the target audience. The reality is that virtual reality mirrors the proclivities of real world communities. The eventual direction is that avatar based shopping will come into the fray and you will be able to purchase real items through virtual stores. Overall the #1 take away was that when entering the space of a virtual world the attitude must be ‘we are here to join your space’ not ‘I am here to colonize the space, sell you product, and take your money’. That attitude shift could be the difference between success and failure in a virtual venture.

SXSW

I am beyond excited to be organizing a panel at SXSW 2007. I hope all of my loyal readers come and engage my panel.  Moreover I have the creative direction to steer the 'Technology in Non Profit Sector' panel in pretty much any direction I choose. Therefore I am asking for ideas or topics you would want to see addressed. Also if you have ideas for presenters please let me know.