Trends about our culture today show us people are busy and tolerance for complicated things seems to be getting lower with each passing day. Twitter tapped this culture trend of time commitment by keeping post limited to 140 characters and with it’s User Friendly / People Focused Design. The Mobile Market is exploding, more people own mobile devices than computers. Twitter tapped this trend by integrating a mobile strategy early in their plan. People like things to fit their needs, this is why Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) should be a critical part of any technology strategy. Twitter empowers people through it’s API with the ability to share custom information across multiple environments.
Happy Fav Five Friday!
Fav Five Places
I actually have a few more than five favorite places. I hope you don’t mind.
The Famous Twitter Sketch
You can see the birth of the idea for Twitter in this sketch and you can read Jack Dorsey’s thoughts about this sketch here. Notice the simplicity of the design and how the idea of sharing across multiple channels was an early thought. The discovery (”find-em”) part toward the bottom is a very smart piece to include early in the design too. Sharing ideas (Collaboration) is the main point of Enterprise 2.0. This sketch reminds us of how a simple idea, shared with others can grow into something beyond your imagination.
Twitter Talk at TED
Evan Williams of Twitter talks about integrating his ideas about SMS with Jack Dorsey’s ideas about Twitter. Evan goes on to talk about the Fundamentals of Twitter. He quickly describes how people discover uses of Twitter for Business and in Government.
A great quote here is, “One of the many ways that users shaped the evolution of Twitter”. I can’t wait to here this in the Enterprise, “One of the many ways that USERS shaped the evolution of Enterprise 2.0″.
Twitter’s design and API make this tool so simple to use, that a common house plant can communicate to the world. This reminds us of the power of simplicity. Technology should lower barriers, not create new ones.
“Going far beyond the original idea” is another great quote. I believe Enterprise 2.0 is designed to support doing this very thing.
There are many things taught about innovation in this video
Twitter CEO Evan Williams speaks to users in Tokyo
“What we learned time and time again from listening…” is an important quote in this video. You can also see the chart of all the tweets over the course of the World Cup. This got me thinking about what would happen to your business if an idea had this much collaboration through Enterprise 2.0 tools.
Biz Stone and Evan Williams on Twitter
In this more recent video we hear Biz and Evan talk about how relationships are important. Listening to customers can help avoid PR disasters and improve brand loyalty. A little communication can reverse a customers decision about going to your competitor. They also share some important thoughts on privacy.
How Twitter Changed My Life
This is an impressive presentation about Twitter and how to harness it’s value.
Twitter provides a nice collection of case studies. These case studies include reports from big businesses, non-profits, and government.
The Power of the API
In the first video Evan mentions there were over 2,000 applications using Twitter’s API. Their API enables people to share filtered customized data across multiple environments. The ability to share information across multiple environments increases the opportunities for collaboration. What if your Enterprise 2.0 Solution had an API to support sharing data when you need it, where you need it?
Twitter API Mashups and Apps on Programmable Web
You can discover and learn from a huge collection of APIs and developers at Progammable Web.
Twitter API Mashups and Apps on Yahoo Pipes
You can discover some new ways of using Twitter at Yahoo Pipes.
Fav Five Faces
Who is on your “Fantasy Innovation Team” this week?
Here are just a few new friends that have connected me to new people and new ideas this week. You might be familiar with “Fantasy Football Teams” and such, well this is my “Fantasy Innovation Team” this week. I recommend following these smart, creative people on Twitter.
Communication strategist. Digital Something. Connector. Entrepreneur. Anime & SciFi lover. http://twitter.com/db
VP of Product at Spigit, the SaaS enterprise innovation management platform. And a Dad who misses running marathons. http://twitter.com/bhc3
IT consultant, managing software development/ integration projects for a living; .Net, CMS, intranet, collaborative workplace, knowledge management, e-learninghttp://twitter.com/dzhu
Technology consultant/architect at IBM in Cambridge MA, enterprise search, social computing; piano, a cappella, cyclist, origami, iPhone; my tweets are my own!http://twitter.com/eric_andersen
social media strategist, technological optimist, blogger, consultant, father, spreker, innovatie, php, wordpress | I collect and tweet interesting links http://twitter.com/rickmans
Grasp your opportunity to change through interaction
Seth Godin shares several quick tips on how to seize opportunities to change in this video about becoming indispensable.
Becoming a Linchpin
Emotional labor in sixty seconds
“Digging deep inside you and producing an idea that scares you.” is just a small part of this video by Seth.
Cupcakes, Linchpins & Lizard Brains
I met a lot of new friends and caught up with some old friends at the “Cupcakes, Linchpins & Lizard Brains” event hosted by Debbie Weil (@debbieweil ). This was a very fun and informative event, which Debbie did an outstanding job of organizing.
I had to get my picture with this guy, he looks so much like Seth
Robert, Me, & Jennifer Berk
Everyone’s an Artist
Debbie had several guest speakers and they shared some great tips on how to be indispensable.
This is my favorite photo. I think this pictue of Debbie shows the feeling of someone in the center of their passion. This is the “sweet spot” of being a Linchpin. I recommend subscribing to her blog http://www.debbieweil.com. You will also find plenty of priceless advice, tips, & insights, that you can use right now, in her “Corporate Blogging Book“.
Evan Williams @ev, the CEO of Twitter gives a TED Talk about Twitter. In the birthing room of ODEO, Twitter is born from Jack Dorsey’s @Jack idea of sending status updates. Evan covers many fundamental keys to success in this video. Thanks to Dr. Harish Kotadia @HKotadia for bringing this to my attention.
How to use Twitter and other Social Media Tools to engage your audience
The World Wide Web is connecting people and things faster than ever. The use Twitter, Blogs, Social Media, Mobile Media has become part of main stream culture. You can leverage the power of your audience and new media to build exponential value into your existing efforts.
The Three Points of View for an Event
Audience
Speakers
Event Coordinators
Three Thoughts About Events
How Event Coordinators Can Make Their Job Easier
How Speakers/Presenters Can Make Their Job Easier
How The Audience Adds Value
Events 2.0
Events are much more interactive now. The trend for events is similar to the trend we see in how people use the Internet. Web 1.0 (Mostly one-way communication) to Web 2.0 (Very interactive with at least two-way communication). People are working together now, more than ever. The current economic conditions and busy lifestyles creates a condition that leads us to doing more with less. People are smart and will spend their time and money where they see the most value. Adding more value is key to success.
Social Media Tools
Twitter: “Just-In-Time” Communications
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick rich text messages. Twitter messages are available through mobile devices, web services, and third party applications. http://twitter.com Conversations can be connected by the use of a hash tag.
ParaTweet: Engage audience and speakers
Paratweet Supports Speakers interacting with the audience through live or delayed Q&A and spreads user generated conference info. This tool supports filtering. http://www.paratweet.com/The view can be filtered by the event hash tag.
Twitterfall: A tool to help display questions/conversations on stage
Twitterfall is a way of viewing the latest ‘tweets’ of upcoming trends and custom searches on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Updates fall from the top of the page in near-real-time. http://twitterfall.com/ Views can be filtered by hash tags.
Free WordPress Blog: Blogging service for your online journal
You can get a blog started in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. All you need is an email address. You’ll get your own WordPress.com address (like you.wordpress.com), a selection of great free and customizable designs for your blog (we call them themes), 3 gigabytes of file storage (that’s about 2,500 pictures!) and many other great features. You can blog as much as you want for free, your blog can be public to the world or private for just your friends, and premium features are completely optional. http://wordpress.com/ Event related posts can include event hash tag in title & body so others can find the extra content by a simple search.
Google YouTube to share your event and presentation videos
Google YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email. http://www.youtube.com Event related videos can include event hash tag in title & description so others can find the extra content by a simple search.
Google YouTube example: Service Oriented Architecture-SOA
Slideshare automatically converts your presentation into sharable content for social media
Upload and share your PowerPoint presentations and Word documents on SlideShare. Share publicly or privately. Add audio to make a webinar. http://www.slideshare.net Event related presentations can include event hash tag in title & description so others can find the extra content by a simple search.
Yahoo Flickr to share photos/videos of people, ideas, and information from your events
Event related photos/videos can include event hash tag in collection title, tag, & description so others can find the extra content by a simple search. http://www.flickr.com
Yahoo Flickr example from #ajaxworld 09 NY
How The Audience Adds Value
People are going to talk about the event and the speakers. Most of these conversations will take place on the web in the form of social media. The current trend of using Twitter and mobile devices during an event opens new opportunities. Giving the audience resources to use in these social media channels will benefit everyone. A simple resource could be a hash tag (a key word that identifies the event ex:#web30), more on this later. Additional resources could include content that people could simply copy and paste into their blogs, twitter posts, and other created media that adds value. Twitter offers the ReTweet function. Google YouTube, Slideshare, & Yahoo Flickr offer copy/paste code for bloggers. Most of these tools also have APIs that will support Mashups.
Resources on how to use Social Media for Events and Meetings
About Hash Tags
Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added in-line to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag. http://twitter.pbworks.com/Hashtags
TweetGrid gives bloggers and web site owners the ability to include event related widgets in their pages: http://tweetgrid.com/
EventVue provides easy-to-use social networking tools that help your attendees get the most out of their networking experience at your event: http://www.eventvue.com/
Experiments with #hashtags
The hash tag for AJAXWORLD 2009 New York was #ajaxworld. This event spanned more than one day and had several sessions across multiple tracks. This event also happens annually. I would think the annual hash tag would be something like #ajaxworld09. This event also happens in multiple locations within one year. I would think the hash tag would now look something like #ajaxworld09NY.
Here is what we have so far:
#ajaxworld: What
#ajaxworld09: What When
#ajaxworld09NY: What When Where
I would think that this type of structure easier and I would still have space within my 140 characters to add value. That would be difficult if I had to include “#ajaxworld #2009 #NewYork #RIA #SOA #iPhoneDevSummit“.
Now we have “what”, “when”, and “where”, I am thinking about how to identify the tracks and sessions. Track 04 was dedicated to iPhone Developer Summit. Seems like the hash tag for that track at this event would be #ajaxworld09NY04. This hash tag would allow people to monitor the iPhone Developer Summit Track of AJAX WORLD during 2009 in New York. The hash tag could also be used to tag related resources for current or future review.
What about the session part of the event matrix?
I would think that session 05 of the iPhone Track on the second day would look like #ajaxworld09NY040502. This would identify the “iPhone Development in an Enterprise Environment” session that took place on the second day.
Ideal hash tag structure:
#{What}{When}{Where}{Topic}{Details}{Time} Most hash tag users seem to use a two digit number for the year, which makes me think about also using two digit numbers for Topic, Details, and Time. This type of structure will support an event with upto 99 Topics through 99 sessions across 99 days. Events that go beyond these limits would be broken up into multiple events.
Searching on #hashtags (This does not work on all services)
#ajaxworld: return everything about ajaxworld
#ajaxworld09: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009
#ajaxworld09NY: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009 New York
#ajaxworld09NY04: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009 New York related to the iPhone Dev Track
#ajaxworld09NY040502: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009 New York related to the iPhone Dev Track on iPhone/E 2.0
The current twitter tools seem to search for the hash tag followed by an empty space. A search in some services for #ajaxworld does not always return results that contain #ajaxworld09NY.
#Hashtag Thoughts
Using a hash tag for an event is a common practice. A standard that software developers could understand will help users take full advantage of the power that hash tags provide. A simple hash tag that identifies the event and its parts should support the ability for user filtering.
What are your thoughts about hash tags and their structure?
What do you think about using twitter and other social media tools during events?
Thoughts about this post
I hope more people will think about putting their content into shareable content objects and leverage the work of others.
