Ode to Curate: What tools do you use?
Being Friday, I have been toggling between work and exploring the latest tech news online. I stumbled upon New York Time’s Nick Bilton podcasting about Controlled Serendipity: the challenges of consuming monstrous amounts of information on the web and making sense of it all.
The desire and need to aggregate and curate the content is the norm for most of us. As the Internet becomes more pervasive and technologically able, its characteristics will naturally morph to reflect human tendencies, behaviours and lifestyle choices. The popularity of social networks and tools is proof of this.
Which leads me to my question: what social media or web based tools you use to organise and manage content that is of value to you, for personal and work endeavours?
A day in the life of @schmediachick would involve (in no particular order):
- Scan and Filter: I use Google Reader to aggregate news from selected sites into the one spot
- Aggregate: If I’m excited about the news or see value of using it later on, I would share the link on Twitter for future reference
- Tag and Organise: If I stumble upon a cool article, I would either Tweet about this or use Delicious, a social bookmarking site that let’s you organise and store articles on their site
- Extract and Curate: there are many Twitter apps that allow you to export your Tweets into Excel. I personally use Tweetake for its simple one step process. Curation occurs here, on Blog hosting platforms like WordPress and Posterous.
If there’s an easier way I’m keen to know!
Product in Vogue: iPad’s Identity Crisis
It’s going to be hard to top Apple’s iPad launch this year. The blogosphere was abuzz with short and long posts of iPad’s specs, what it has and what it doesn’t and why Steve Jobs forever turtleneck and jeans attire. A great chapter for Google to read as an example of effective Marketing
What I love about it:
- It builds on the strengths of the iPhone: its compelling multitouch interface, icon based dashboard and slimline design;
- It adds colour to your reading pleasure: whilst the Kindle’s E Ink technology uniquely renders the bookworm’s experience to the matching of reading a physical paper, the LED backlit display claims a crisp appearance on the screen;
- The retail price is affordable, starting at US$499 but with more storage compared to the Kindle
Source: http://Apple.com/iPad
As history tells, Apple is jumping ahead on the demand curve and building demand with a sexy piece of innovation. But what perplexes me is iPad’s lack of clear positioning on the device food chain. We have portable Netbooks that let’s us surf the web wirelessly and work on the fly, the eReader is for, well, reading books and other types of literature, and the iPhone is your better than average mobile phone slash email device.
Some might say that integration of all these bits (with improved performance) into the one device is what makes iPad unique, saving on luggage when you’re out and about. But remember:
- If it aint broken, don’t fix it – my Samsung Netbook and iPhone is working fine and don’t intend to replace it any time soon
- Convergence is not always the best policy. Telco operators have spoken to death about fixed lines and mobile phones converging onto a single device (cite, BT Fusion) but this concept is now dead. Why? Some people see value keeping the utility of one device separate from another
What is clear is the need for compelling, diverse content that gives people reason to use these sexy devices on. The iBook store will only rise for the occasion if there are great items on offer!
The diversity of views with this launch has been immense – would you buy an iPad and for what reason/s?
Review: finding the Right Time & Right Place for your spanking new product
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s hard to miss the amount of technology coverage that’s been going around of late (for those who want a digest of happenings, tune in):
- The saturated coverage on Google’s Nexus One, and its endless comparisons with the iPhone;
- The much hyped chatter about 3D appliances following the Avatar craze;
- The up and coming Tablets from Apple, HP and Google;
- The growing demand for geo-sensitive social networks, including Foursquare and Gowalla
It’s interesting to note that most of these concepts are not new. For example, Optus (an old employer flame of mine) launched Find a Friend (thx, @silkcharm) back in 2005 using the coordinates of your mobile against the Optus’ nearest base stations to approximate your location against your list of friends.
The Tablet concept has also been around for at least a decade. In fact, Microsoft pioneered the original ‘PC Tablet’ back in 2000, citing its key benefit as emulating the ‘simplicity of putting pen to paper’ whilst have the full Windows suite available. More details on the launch
here.
Which begs the question, why the hype and imminent success of these same concepts now, in 2010?
Entertain these 2 reasons with me if you may:
1. It’s about being at the right place at the right time
Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell) explains this point well. The example of Bill Gates demonstrates the importance of being around at the right time to grab opportunities that would ultimately lead to success.
For us, we are more virtually connected, more tech savvy than ever. By the same token, technologies are much more ripe and proven than back in 2000.
Combining the market need and technological readiness brings the pent up demand for smart phones, the upcoming Tablets and more sophisticated networks.
2. It’s also about who or what you are
The likes of Apple and Google continue to amaze me, not only with their product diversification, but also with the amount of media coverage and consumer demand that comes about with any activity they choose to embark in.
Which brings me to the second point: who you are has a large bearing on the success of your endeavours. The Zune series is a great example of this. Our experiences tell us that anything from Microsoft is going to be complex to use, which in turn affects our purchasing decision. The personality of the company has a huge bearing on success as well.
Thanks for putting up with that rant, now over to you for your thoughts!
Thanks for the memories, 2009
2009 has seen a cultural and technological shift for most individuals and companies, and I for one have experienced a genuine desire to connect with other like minded people online. Time poor has slowly become a thing of the past as the ease of talking to others has taken on an entirely new dimension.
Go on any news site or influential blog and you’ll find some good reflections on 2009.
The Age talks about the Year in Technology , another claims 2009 as the year of Social Networks, ZDNet captures the top 5 in a video wrap.
Some highlights for me were (extracted from my trusty Twitter stream):
1. The continued proliferation of smart phones, open developer’s market for the iPhone and the Google Android phone.
2. The launch of Bing. Whilst it hasn’t affected Google’s search engine market share, Google’s complacency has somewhat been challenged, a good example is Bing’s decision to launch real time search against Twitter, Wolfram Alpha and Facebook.
3. Related to Bing is Murdoch’s pay wall media message frenzy. This is sure to be crowned the biggest publicity blitz for 2009. Quality and uniqueness of content were the topics on debate until News threatened Google with content exclusivity for Bing – #FAIL for unfair play.
4. The emergence of geo-location apps in phones and social networks. Look out for more activity here. Cite: Foursquare and Gowalla
5. The growing demand for social ‘computing’ or CRM. I’ve certainly seen genuine interest for companies wishing to track and monitor relevant conversations, online. Another space to watch as apps like Chatter will only get better.
Embracing change is something we humans are getting much better at and I’m excited at the prospect that the web and its multi facets will become increasingly entrenched in our lifestyles, whether we like it or not!
The Misadventures of Social Media
I’m slightly turned off these days when seeing or hearing about social media. At times, there’s so much abuse with the term that I’m left sitting, deciphering which exact component of social media a particular person is referring to.
A Google Alert of mine that tracks social media and analytics are cluttered with ‘Social Media Revolution’ and ‘Secrets to Social Media success’ taglines that promise instant knowledge and success.
This leads me to conclude that Social Media is so broad of a term that it can be easily misinterpreted. Some of the traditional journos who stepped up to debate about Political Reporting at Media140 are fine examples of this. A particular Political Editor from ABC stated that ‘social media has a problem with identity and accuracy’, ensuing a direct comparison between journalism and social media as processes, rather than viewing social networks as a new platform (like any other traditional method) and a potential supplement to the journalistic process. More views on this very topic can be found here.
Which is why MC Hammer was a breath of fresh air. I was sceptical at first about having an ex-Rapper with a history of bankruptcy and baggy pants preach to us on the merits of social media. Nothing groundbreaking came out of his address, but what clearly resonated was his passion for the topic as he shared his testimony on how social media has helped him with real time analytics to manage his personal brand.
Source: Brisbane Times
Rather than remind us about the 10 C’s, he challenged and encouraged everyone in the room to find own niche as entrepreneurs in our fields. And unlike some presenters, he demonstrated knowledge beyond Twitter when he put his money on Augmented Reality as the engine behind future apps.
Sure, he’s not a scholar at the topic. But who is? Every human being has the capability of engaging in online communities, setting up an account and carving out value of their own, be it passive or active. Deriving from this are 2 little thoughts for the day:
- Be precise with terminology. Online communities (your immediate group of friends/connections online), social networks or interactive channels (eg. Twitter and Facebook) are some ways of achieving this
- Be precise with making social media (or interactive networks) useful for you. It is by nature versatile. There is the customer service angle, extracting insights for product development and brand identity. More on this is in an earlier post of mine and another from Amber at Radian6.
Some cool references that talk to the topic at hand:
- Jeremiah Owyang speaks about Social Colonisation for 2009: online experiences that are pervasively social. This is pretty much on the money. The future sees an elevated role of communities all round defining and driving the agenda for businesses
- ReadWriteWeb, on getting down to the grassroots of figuring out how using communities can help with deriving business value and addressing concerns
Media140 Sydney: Day 1 Wrap Up
Since there’s already alot of great microblogs, live/archived video streams and official bloggers on Day 1 of Media140 in Sydney today, I thought I’d add my views on the speakers from today via a simple perceptual map that rates speakers by quality (message) vs delivery (medium).
I have tweeted most of today’s learnings, however the key ones that spring to mind are:
1. Opinion might be vast and varied, but quality journalism is the costly exercise (@Julie_posetti)
2. Standing out with credibility through accurate reporting and verification of facts in the context of the reader is an opportunity that only grows as social media is adopted in mainstream (@riy)
3. Whilst social media humanises journalism, the same ethical principles apply: honesty & transparency with freedom of speech (@theburgerman)
What was missing from today’s event was clearly (and thankfully) voiced by @stilgherrian: rather than an ‘us vs them’ mentality, journalists should be exploring the merits and opportunities of engaging in social media rather than taking the medium to war.
Disclaimer: Views presented here is strictly @schmediachick's and noone elses
Developing Compelling Products with Social Context
Day 24 of HerBusinessBlog’s 30 days of Social Media was dedicated to the topic of infusing social media into the product development lifecycle.
Here’s an excerpt of my post:
We’ve learned at length about the benefits of Twitter as an information network for communities of interest (my personal RSS feed of choice!). Twitter continues to innovate in this arena with the trailing of Twitter Lists to improve the organisation of such information within communities.
Source credit: Cadalyst.com
The notion of communities and social networks however is a much bigger playing field than just Twitter. Entrepreneurs in this day and age have a limitless amount of free/low cost online tools that can potentially deliver value to businesses, big or small across a range of disciplines. This post will focus on these tools that support your Product Development activities.
Click here to read the full post.
David Eldridge on Social Media (2GB)
There was an interesting Radio interview with David Eldridge from Alterian on tracking coverage, sentiment on brand, products or campaigns from Friday 16th October with 2Gb. Summary of interview here (source: Media Monitors):
Customers who are not happy with your business can now communicate their displeasure to millions of people around the world via the internet.
David Eldridge, Alterian, explains how companies can track this negative publicity and respond quickly and appropriately. He says that Dell have started using social media to identify people who make be interested in buying their products. He talks about his company’s social media monitoring tool, SM2, which can be used to monitor and analyse the content of hundreds of thousands of blogs, micro-blogs and user-generated content.
MacSween talks about the CEO of a foreign airline who used You Tube to respond to public criticism. FaceBook is also mentioned as a place where members of the public can air their views.
Audio to follow soon..
Seeking Relevance for your business with Online Networks
I’ve had the pleasure to blog a bit about Online Networks and the value these might bring to businesses of any size. Check it out on HerBusinessBlog, currently the featured article.
HerBusinessBlog.com :: Featured Article
Comments and feedback are welcome as usual!
