So...What's Next?!?

A blog post I will always treasure but...Who is "Chris"? -

This morning I realized it has been awhile since I have googled my own name. It is not an ego thing - really! I will admit there was a time when it was an ego thing, but now it is more of curiosity to see what shows up and how google ranks the pages. It seems some things show up and disappear again while other things go from obscurity to page one. Yes all of you who follow SEO mumble jumble understand the ins and outs of why - I am just interested in what the tide is bringing in.

So today I google my name and for the first few pages there are no big surprises....then I get to page 4 and I see something I have not seen in a very long time...

Atlanta Media Bloggers: Still seeking a name

This is the blog post where "Chris" named the conference that we have held 3 years in a row!

But there is no link included with his comment. In 3 years he has never revealed to the world that he is responsible for the name. I have no idea who this person is...

Anyway, this blog post has special meaning for me on many different levels.

1. It was the first time in my life I had ever organized anything....I mean anything...and well - it was a pretty significant first which has led to many more opportunities in my life than I could have imagined.

2. It reminds me that there was a time when I was new to social media and people who had been around the block once or twice were NOT very welcoming to a newcomer. Nothing has changed. There is STILL a lot of social media veterans blogging about the huge numbers of social media "experts" coming into the space. I sometimes can relate to those feelings of "wait a minute - I have been doing this for almost 4 years - since before this city knew what a blog was - how dare you jump on the band wagon now!" but then I remember when I was jumping on the band wagon and there was actually still room for me there...and there is still much more room for the many other people finding opportunities in social media...so jump on board.

3. Finally - the friends and supporters who encouraged me to jump on board - they will always be people I hold dear in my life - and this was our little club house - our little meetup where we learned together and launched onto the many paths our lives have taken us. This was our beginning and for me, it is and always will be a very special time in my life.

But....who is Chris?

Momentum

Offline activities translates to online conversations.

So as I mentioned in the post yesterday, there was some twittering going on at the summit.

At SoCon07, Podcamp, Barcamp, SoCon08 and all the other such conferences there is blogging, podcasting, picture taking, videoing, twittering and more happening.

I was having a conversation with a friend today and I mentioned how SoCon08 was promoted completely through the organizers' online network and the extended network. He has recently been to another large conference that was also completely promoted through online networks.

What is interesting with promoting offline events through your online network is the kind of buzz that gets created before, during, and after the event. That kind of publicity could not be bought - and if it was it would be quite expensive.

But what makes that kind of publicity different from the kind that can be bought is that it is authentic and transparent. If an event has some glitches, everyone will know about it.

So far it has only been a brave few who have been willing to put their abilities to pull off a large task, whether it is an event or a collaborative project, out in the open, naked, for all the world to see and judge.

That does seem like a scary thought... but the ongoing rewards can be absolutely amazing.

“Sliding headfirst is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest. You don't lose your momentum, and there's one more important reason I slide headfirst, it gets my picture in the paper.”

Pete Rose

The Possibilities of Mass Collaboration

I attended the Georgia Technology Summit today. So far I found a few blogs, some tweets, and Amani Channels video from the session. I am sure there are more to come. I will be saving the reactions here.

The keynote Speaker was Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics - the 2007 management book of the year.

I was very excited that this group would be introduced to his message, but I am a little concerned that it did not resonate with many.

Just follow some of the tweets;

StephenFleming:                

#gts2008 Seeing a lot of eyes glazed over here. I hope it's soaking in to some people.                  

jhaynie:                

#gts2008 -  *more people need* to read wikinomics in this room                

I actually saw someone dozing off!

Tapscott started with the 2007 Time Magazine person of the year as being “You.”

He discussed the growth of Facebook and MySpace that is happening all over the world and that there is a new blog created every second of everyday…

And then he dropped the "All this news is so 2006."

Today it is about a new way of productions. How we create goods and services and how companies communicate all over the world.

What was so timely about this message was the post on BusinessWeek

Social Media Will Change Your Business
Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later

I would like to repeat...I saw people falling asleep this morning!!!

Tapscott also discussed how the new web is accessed throughout various “things” from chips in the door key for his hotel to smart houses.

He talked about how the physical world is becoming smart and interconnected bringing up;

Broadband Mobility

Geo-Spatiality (GPS Tour Guide)  and IntelliOne

He also discussed the idea of True Multimedia – You get to have a movie and be in the movie as well. Think of the next generation of game play with cinema.

I would say it is practically here with machinima.

Tapscott discussed the rise of web services and how the new web is based on XML – computation…..where every time you interact with the computer you are programming the global platform and the need to integrate internal systems to the global platform (AJAX)

He announced that people who keep thinking about the Internet as it used to be are making a big mistake.

Our kids, the ones coming into the workforce, known as the net generation, have no “fear” of technology because it is like air to them.

I hated computers in the 10th grade. Todays 10th graders do not know a world without computers.

How much of an accelerated change is this?...Tapscott showed the growth trend of this generation in regards to the population growth

Generations – Boom, Bust (Gen X) and then the  Echo (net gen) which is louder than the original boom.

For this generation time online is taking away from television. These kids watch less TV and they are multi-taking while interacting with all their digital devices.

62% of the time heavy Internet users bleep out TV ads. That means when they are watching television, they are watching it on their own terms.

Tapscott noted that this is the first time in history when children are the authority on something really important.

Tapscott highlighted the attitudes of the net gen based on  a panel with some kids awhile back.

"Why would I read a newspaper no links and only comes out once a day…"

"News is called an RSS feed and I can start my own newspaper."

"The Daily Show is not funny unless you know the news."

Kids expect to be engaged. As Tapscott pointed out;

Self organization has been around for the ages. Language is a function of self organization. But what used to take place over a millennia or centuries now can happen in a week or even a single day.

Tapscott noted that the average age of people who watch the nightly news is 62!

He also made a good case that the Internet is a platform for collaborations and that companies should not have websites anymore, they should be building communities.

Best question of the day...If you have employees wasting time on social networks…..is that a technology problem?

Sharing is Capitalism at it’s best because it is collaboration for innovation.

My Question – First I noted that there is a generation gap - from my spot in the room I thought I was the only one with a laptop trying to live blog (the wireless was not accessible) as opposed to all the bloggers we have at the SoCon events. But as you see a few others blogged the event -some of the "usual suspects" :)

Then I asked how the participants  of today's summit can find the balance of responding and managing these shifts as well as strategies to embrace and take advantage of these trends. Tapscott nailed the answer - just start contributing.

Overall it was a great event and I got to see a lot of people I know and meet a few new people.

Tonights closing quote;

We could go over the cliff. You would hope not. You would hope that people see what needs to be done. It's not rocket science. It's not difficult. It's not even all that costly. It's actually about the way you think about the world.

Tim Flannery

We should be the cool kids!

Is your city social media friendly? Do businesses in your area have a reputation for embracing blogs, podcasts, and social networks?

This is the question that Dan Greenfield asked of several participants of SoCon08.

The overall answer (re: Atlanta)  was no - not really.

The question I had to ask myself today was;  Is that hurting me more than helping me as a social media consultant?

I have not traveled to the west coast...this past weekend I brought the west coast to Atlanta - that should count for something. But this weekend Chris Heuer and Josh Hallett and Dave Coustan pointed out that I need to get out to more conferences...something Timothy Moenk has been telling me for two years.

But today was the clincher. I was presenting to a new company here in Atlanta, my adopted hometown, where I have been evangelizing social media relentlessly for 2 + years - and the person I was presenting to said she had never heard of me. OK - that just sounds egotistical - but stay with me.

This person was also a social media enthusiast. However she had been going to conferences in NY and in CA and not even looking for good opportunities in Atlanta, because, she said, Atlanta had no market.

Because I have stayed in this city, it was almost as though my credibility was in question. Overall we worked it out and had a great meeting - but Atlanta... I am embarrassed!

I am not technical - so I can not go into details of all the activities that Jeff Haynie and Mike Schinkel and many others have been putting together such as start-up weekend or barcamp, but I do know that we have tried a variety of end user social media efforts that I have been involved with such as Atlanta Media Bloggers Group, Social Media Club, Social Media for PR Professionals, CRMA Summit, SoCon07, SoCon08, the new Enterprise 2.0 Society of TAG - plus PRSA events and there have been many other events.

So what is the disconnect?

Well - today I was sent another idea to start another group.

    Social Networking Experience Council

Initially I explained that I just do not have the bandwidth to start another effort. However, then I started thinking more about it. How can I get others to start "experience councils" regarding their industry? Someone who really is in PR (which I am not) should have a Social Networking PR Council. Many Interactive Marketing Agencies are claiming to be involved in social media. They should get together and start trading notes, because the one thing I have noticed is they are all over the place when it comes to how to create a social media site and what being a "consultant" means. We need more round tables and discussions.

But as much as I have tried to get those together, they do not happen in the business communities here like they should. The way they do things on "the West Coast." Everyone who claims to be an expert here seems to  treat social media as their secret sauce. It seems it is only a secret to people in Atlanta. Everyone else knows the doors are "open."

Come on Atlanta peeps - let's stand up and shine and not remain the outcast, introverted, stuff shirt city in the connected world. Let's start being one of the cool kids again!

Every generation needs a new revolution.

- Thomas Jefferson

Who started this thing anyway...

I just returned from the kick off of SoCon08. I got to see Grayson Daughters there briefly and she pointed out how far we've come. I met Grayson through the Atlanta Media Blogger's Group - a small monthly meetup from about two years ago. We were lucky if 10 people showed up - but they were usually the 10 brightest people I had ever met.

That got me thinking about the first Atlanta Media Bloggers Group - which was started by Kevin Howarth - eventually I kept it going, but that was only because I was inspired by the person who spoke at the first one, which was Josh Hallett.

From there it was Kevin (again) who convinced me and drove with me to ConvergeSouth and then it was James Harris who encouraged me to set a date for this - idea and yet to be named unconference. It was the core Atlanta Media Bloggers Group that rallied the troops which eventually brought Leonard Witt, Jeff Haynie and me together.

I remember walking into SoCon07 and saying to myself..."who did  this?"  - because it ended up being much more than I would ever dare to imagine thanks to Leonard's passion and Jeff's organizational skills.

This year we had 160 people at the dinner - about 70 more people than last year  and we have 300 people registered for tomorrow's event. Wow!

'So tonight I leave you with this quote...

“Influence may be the highest level of human skills”
-Unknown

Atlanta's Landscape is Changing

About a year and a half ago we started putting SoCon07 together and we were hoping we could get 100 people there. Although it was a free event, we knew that not many people were aware of the impact that social media was about to have on...everything.

We did A LOT of promoting; TechLINKS agreed to be our media sponsor, CRMA and Atlanta IT Association promoted it, we had lots of of blogger friends blog about it...but I feel the big win was when Time Magazine announced "You" as Time Magazine's Person of the year. Social Media was finally hitting the mainstream.

We had about 100 people at the dinner and about 250 people at the Saturday event.

This year we have not done nearly as much promotion. I have blogged about it and sent information out to my email list. I know Leonard and Jeff have blogged and others have blogged about it. But we have not pushed it nearly as hard as we did last year. Not only that we are charging this year - we have additional expenses that needed to be covered whereas last year we all handled as much as we could ourselves. Currently we have over 120 people signed up for the dinner and almost 200 signed up for the event. I will be sending another email out tomorrow to let everyone know this is the last week to sign up - we will shut registration down on Friday. On Tuesday we are going to have to raise the price of the Friday night dinner. So - if you have not registered yet - do not delay.

Today Leonard Witt, Barbara Vining, Timothy Moenk and I met to finalize some details such as break out sessions and the menu. We agreed on 11 breakout sessions based on what people requested on the registration form. Most people were still looking for a basic over view, or what I think they are saying is they do not know what they need to know but they need to know something. I am happy to announce we put a schedule together that will address the "newbies" as well as those looking to know "what's next."

The "what's next' session will be covered by Timothy Moenk and will touch upon his current interest which is DataPortability. I will be covering Social Media for B2B and Josh Hallett will cover "Everything you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask."'

Another meeting I had today covered our project scope with the Technology Association of GA. We have been consulting with Tino and his team for a few months and I am very excited with the roll-out plan that Tim has put together. It seems to be a win-win for everyone involved.

As we roll this out to one of the largest associations in GA I can only imagine the ripple affect as more and more organizations realize the potential that can be unleashed when the the tools, technologies and cultural shifts are embraced in favor of collaboration and communication.

Tomorrow's What a Concept! weekly post will be all about the upcoming summit - so I will not repeat that here other than to mention that the keynote is Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics, a book I recommended to everyone last year. That should get more and more people thinking about collaboration.

Just the events in the first few months of this year has me looking forward to some of the changes that I have been advocating finally gaining momentum.

There is this rumor going around about a recession. I personally have chosen to ignore such rumors and to even ignore a recession, if one should occur. However if one should occur I suspect it will make more organizations want to cut back, be more efficient and effective and run a more lean and streamlined business. It might be a good time to learn more about this thing called social media that will allow such changes to be implemented.

So...today's quote of the day...

Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success.
-Henry Ford