Posts filed under 'conference speaker'
Remember i posted that January was all about verticals? So… this week i’ll be mostly talking about travel and social media… to be more precise, tomorrow in Austria at the ENTER 2008 conference. The pain is that there only seems to be one flight in and out each day according to BA, oh well a bit of snow and fresh air never hurt anyone although i might cough up a London air-filled lung.
Travel is probably one of the most advanced areas when it comes to social media; review sites, communities, weather checks, and videos of shabby hotels in Greece all help us make judgement on where we end up heading on holiday.
So with a keynote from Eric Basha at Microsoft with a focus on the future, i’ve decided try and get people thinking about the future possibilities if you get just a little creative and use the technology we already have available.
I think i’ll leave my shorts at home…..
January 23rd, 2008
I presented yesterday at this conference on Mobile Social Networks and how i thought things might progress this year. I only had 40 minutes (including questions!) and i know sometimes i can get carried away and run out of time…. So for those of you who were there and even if you weren’t here’s a short recap on what i wanted to get across:
Why Mobile Social?
With the iPhone, WiFi and 3G on handsets, mobile browsing is becoming a more engaging experience, moving away from walled gardens and into our regular browser applications. Mobile social applications allow for easy portability, instant content generation and a genuine ability to become really social (meeting face-to-face? Shock horror!) with location based services.
Facebook still leads the way with an easy mobile experience to allow slick crossover from your computer and have a great interface for the iPhone. Myspace and Bebo are way behind with MySpace mobile being an awful experience and reminds me of playing on the Spectrum ZX81; great in the old days but now massively outdated and unbelievably slow to load. Bebo are still beta testing…….
Consolidation
There are far too many social networks and applications to keep up with, updating facebook/myspace/bebo/twitter/flickr/youtube etc etc so what i think we will see this year are more and more piggy-back applications that allow consolidation (just like those loan ads) into one easy monthly payment application. Check out Fring which is a great mobile service offering free VOIP calling across all your messenger services. You can already see this happening successfully online with a browser i’ve been using called Flock which integrates my facebook/flickr/youtube/twitter and media all into my browser window
Content
Instant content generation and consumption is something we all seem to want whether good or bad (i’m thinking Big Brother) and mobile video and cameras are all continuing this with easy to use upload platforms being provided by youtube, flickr and facebook. Yeah yeah that’s all fine but that’s not really using mobile effectively.
Instead take a look at two new things from Yahoo! labs - Zonetag and Zurfer. I like these! With zonetag you take a picture on you’re phone and when you upload the image it suggests relevant tags based on your location and the phone you’re using etc. Then if you’re out and about, zurfer allows you to view photos on your mobile taken by other users based on your location and places of interest around that area, such as restaurants, museums etc. Also take a look at Qik (courtesy of the legend that is Jackie Danicki) which is taking off in a big way in the US right now. Qik allows you to stream live video from your phone to the web. Sweet!
Applications
Current options for mainstream social network application dev are either for the iPhone, facebook (FBML) or Opensocial. For mobile i’ve watched the rapid takeup of app development for the iPhone with everything from games to weather to recipes. Most come out reasonably well and others i think are completely useless! The dev guidelines are over on apples site.
I think that’s the topline but i’m sure i talked for longer than that…..
January 18th, 2008
Happy New Year everyone!
So….. it seems there’s a lot of predictions flying around as to how social media will develop in 2008, Bah! The truth is, no-one has really cracked it yet. Social media, lets not forget is all about being social right?
People are so hung up on how to make money out of it immediately, they’re missing the bigger picture of what this is all about….. Sharing. You need to really understand how communities interact and what you can really offer that will give value to both them and you.
So, in terms of growth this year, my stab is that it will be technology and sector reliant as people start to verticalise (is that a word?!) not only their friends but also how they use and 
interact with social media. Now this is handy as i’m speaking on two such topics this month; mobile and travel.
I have to admit. I’ve avoided mobile web for years as the experience has been too lethargic and non-engaging due to speed/data restriction and walled garden browsers. However i think this could be the year of the mobile due to two things: iPhone (obviously) and social networks. The iPhone has changed the game in mobile web experience massively, utilising the safari browser we’re all used to, wi-fi and a decent size screen. Add to this a new generation of social networks that are location-based and you can now be truly social and catch up with friends in the same vicinity when you’re out and about. What am i on about? Check out loopt to see what i mean. I’ve also been using facebook mobile for a while now and am finding it very useful, especially for micro-blogging so it’s taken over from Twitter for me! I’ll be covering this and other things at the Mobile Search conference this Thursday the 17th January over at BSG House in London.
Next week, Travel and Social Media in Austria. More on that and snowboarding later….
January 14th, 2008
It’s the first day of the inaugaral SMX conference in London today. Following hot on the heels of the mammoth success that has been SES over the years, Danny and Chris have moved onto a new set of ‘learn everything about search’ events.
It had a lot to live up to from the SES shadow, however i was out in New York last month for the first SMX Social event which was the most informative i’ve ever attended (i must put up my thoughts on that one!). There is also a great line up of speakers at SMX London, of which i am one (it must be good then right?) along with Latitudes ever-present Richard Gregory.
I will be tackling trademark issues and brand protection, with a twist, in Friday mornings first session of the day at 9am under the Advanced Search Ads Track. Stop by and say hi, if you’re around at the conference!
November 15th, 2007
