Posts tagged with 'Tech'

CNN International: Google & Verizon threaten to spoil the Internet party

Share

Dear Blackberry: it’s not you, it’s me. (And Android.)

Share

We’ve been together a long time. I still remember so clearly holding my shiny red Pearl in my hands for the first time. It glistened with promise, way back then. It was the summer of 2007.

I was a late adopter (to my fellow geeks, anyway) for a smartphone. For the longest time, I kept my Type-A-like behavior in the digital world in check by not having a device that I could get email on, or surf around on. Finally I caved, and I was thrilled with my little guy. It did everything I needed. A little over a year later, I decided it was time to move on to something bigger, and I bought a Blackberry Bold the day they came out in late 2008.

[read the rest of this post » ]

Fast Company’s “Influence Project:” Maybe call it the “Popularity Contest” instead

Share

Last night I was poking around the socnets before going to bed, and saw that Beth Kanter had posted a link to Fast Company’s “Influence Project.” I’m keenly interested in ways to measure influence as part of the research fellowship I have with the Center for Social Media at American University, so naturally I was intrigued and signed up. It took me a while to suss out what they’re actually doing. While they recognize that influence isn’t about numbers of followers or fans, this is how they measure:

The scale of your influence, and therefore the size of your photo, is based on two measures.

1. The number of people who directly click on your unique URL link. This is the primary measure of your influence, pure and simple.

2. You will receive partial “credit” for subsequent clicks generated by those who register as a result of your URL. In other words, anyone who comes to the site through your link and registers for their own account will be spreading your influence while they spread theirs. That way, you get some benefit from influencing people who are influential themselves. We will give a diminishing, fractional credit (1/2, ΒΌ, 1/8 etc ) for clicks generated up to six degrees away from your original link.

Hmmmmm.

What I find problematic: It’s still in many ways a popularity contest. Someone with a lot of time on their hands could launch a campaign to focus on generating as many clicks as possible, which would certainly skew the measurements of that person’s true influence– if they’re not actively campaigning, how much are people actually clicking on their links?

Plus there’s the problem of the power law in this case–early popular adopters are going to rise to the top faster than later adopters and benefit the most from the Amway-like pyramid scheme of click benefits.

There’s no good measurement for influence right now. Part of that’s because there’s a Pandora’s box of factors to consider. I may be influential in recommending information about social networks or dog behavior, but completely ineffectual at recommending solid information on the cultures of Lower Slobbovia. Which measure of influence is important? Do we take a mean number of some kind to represent my overall influence in the world? If we did, how much weight should my recommendations on Lower Slobbovia play?

I know people are desperate to have quantitative metrics when it comes to social media, especially when thinking about ROI. I don’t want to see us falling back on paradigms that we’re used to, though, because they’re now becoming outdated and useless. Here’s a smidge of how I address this in Share This!, from the section “Avoiding the Newest Numbers Trap” in Chapter 4:

Someday, maybe even while this book is being printed, my dream of having an application that shows me “interestingness” in the social network sphere will come true. Flickr has this for photographs: There is an algorithm based on “[w]here the click-throughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags and many more things which are constantly changing.” The best part? Interestingness itself, then, is constantly changing, based on these shifting variables, so there’s a good chance of finding both something new and something surprising when one goes spelunking through Flickr’s massive collection of interesting photos.

I’m not going to lie to you: This great shift in authority isn’t the easiest part of social networking’s brave new world to navigate. The tools give us tremendous power to change the culture around us, but they’re new, and our behavior and impressions are still based on operating within a hyper-capitalist-focused, hierarchical mindset. We have a lot of work to do on freeing our minds before the rest of our bits will follow.

Surprisingly, though, the uncertainty of the future of social networking tools is also the good news: Things are still shaking out, and we’re in a position to determine whether the reordering of authority will benefit people who previously did not have the access or the means to make their voices heard. Armed with a fundamental understanding of what’s taking place (by, ahem, reading good books on the subject), you’re primed to make the most of change.

Ignite NYC: What Would Kermit Do? [Video]

Share

Here’s my Ignite NYC VIII talk. If you don’t know what Ignite is: it’s a 5 minute talk, with exactly 20 PowerPoint slides, that move automatically every 15 seconds. Whee! You can also check out the slides and notes, and read all about how I prepared for the talk.

An overachiever’s guide to prepping for an Ignite talk

Share

(note: You can look at the slides and text here; here’s the video.)

A week and a half ago, I received an email asking me if I’d be willing to do an Ignite talk for the March 4 NYC event, part of Global Ignite Week. If you’re not familiar with Ignite, here’s the deal: You have 5 minutes to give your talk; you create a PowerPoint presentation to go with the talk, but here’s the kicker: You must do 20 slides, and the slides will advance automatically every 15 seconds. Talk about creative restraint inspiration! Not only is it an amazing challenge and a great place to flex your speaker muscles, but the Ignite platform also reaches far and wide into multiple communities, and can be a huge opportunity to reach lots of audiences with your message. Was I up for it? Sure.

Then the panic set in. Oh my God, what I have I signed myself up for?

[read the rest of this post » ]

Video: GetInvolved.ca’s Digital U podcast on social media

Share

This was shot in June 2009 in Toronto for GetInvolved. It was a really fun conversation with the producers… I talk about free-for-all organizing, how influence is changing, the importance of authenticity–and I start the first Twitter Anon meeting, to boot.

Talk: How Sharing and Storytelling Will Change the World

Share

On Saturday, I gave a the closing keynote talk at Organizing 2.0 here in NYC, a one-day conference designed to bring together labor folks, community organizers and netroots people to work on strategies for integrating online and offline organizing. A fun time was had by all! Here’s the video (thank you, Sum of Change!), and below are my notes from the talk.

[read the rest of this post » ]

What conferences are you going to in 2010?

Share

conference_badgesAs I mentioned on Twitter, it’s just getting too hard for many of us to keep track of all the awesome conferences that happen every year. I’ve missed so many this fall, even ones happening in NYC, just because I hadn’t done any curation. Conferences can be a drag, but as a freelancer/consultant/author without a formal organizational structure, they’re often where I make the best connections and have the most fun with my colleagues.

So! An early New Year’s resolution: I’m gonna try to get on the ball for next year. Already thinking of SXSW, Allied Media Conference, US Social Forum, Personal Democracy Forum, Women Who Tech, America’s Future Now, NonProfit 2.0, NTEN and more; what do you recommend in the social tech, media, politics, activism, and social justice fields? Conferences & unconferences, big ‘n’ small. Leave ‘em in the comments (links to conferences would be helpful), and I’ll publish a big list in the next few days.

Picking a cover for “Share This!” and the hilarity of how friends know me

Share

I’m running a poll to help me and my publisher choose a cover for Share This! — go take it! Here are your choices…

all_four

BK wanted me to add a “how do you know the author” question to the survey, so of course, my friends decided to have a wee bit of fun. Here’s a roundup of my favorite response so far (with necessary comments from me in italics):

  • She’s a pal.
  • From the bar
  • The series of tubes
  • In college, we were making beds for the football team NY Giants. ask her. (true!)
  • We share an ex-boyfriend, ha ha.
  • It’s complicated, but I’ve been a fan for years! (See: “We share an ex-boyfriend.” No kidding, there’s more than one)
  • We went to psychic healer school together.
  • She designed my site, and saved my life. (check is in the mail, Alice)
  • I am her indentured servant (You are? Where’s my dinner, muppet?)
  • Schmoozing
  • I mistook her for Jill from Jack & Jill Politics (true story, Cheryl.)
  • We met in in jail. Or was it the Army?
  • Her very favorite Uncle out of all her uncles living in NC (there’s just one)
  • Hair bleach and naughty conversations
  • Osmosis (not far from the truth, on the Bowery)

UPDATE: More funny friends have chimed in…

  • From a movie set, it’s a long story (god help us, this one)
  • secret president of her fan club (that check is going in the mail now)
  • Sister; knew her before she got a sense of humor :) (thanks, bro!)
  • friend/dog scratcher/chef (need you FT, see “indentured servant” above)
  • great serendipity (the meaning of life, after “42″ of course)

We need your vote! It’s time for SXSW panels…

Share

sxsw2010Friends, Tube-izens, citizens, lend me your ears!

It’s that time of the year where SXSW asks us to garner mega amounts of attention for the panels we’re proposing for next year’s Interactive conference. This is a Big Deal, and I’m joining forces with all the other fabulous people around me to co-promote everyone’s hard work. So, take 3 minutes to register and vote for us!

My panels:

My friends’ gigs:

UPDATE: I was in the social justice frame o’ mind when I first wrote this, and forgot other Good People:

(Am I missing you? Let me know!)

Thanks in advance for helping to keep social cause stuff on the plate at such an influential conference. It means a lot to us out here on the front lines!

http://pandagon.net