OK, I'm not referring to THAT tech bubble...
Last night, Katie and I attended a WTIA dinner entitled, "Web 2.0 and Beyond: Unmasking the Future!" (Enthusiastic punctuation theirs...) The main event of the evening was a panel discussion that featured Mark Britton, the CEO of Avvo, Ben Elowitz, the CEO of Wetpaint, Steve Makofsky, a chief architect at Yahoo and Janis Machala, a respected local angel investor and start-up advisor. The panel was moderated by James Sun, CEO of Zoodango, whose name you can't mention without also noting that he was the runner-up on The Apprentice last year. I'm pretty sure it's a law....
While the event was ostensibly about the direction of Web 2.0 and, god help us, Web 3.0, there were some interesting revelations and insights about the public awareness and usage of today's web technologies, let alone tomorrow's. One of the highlights of the evening was an introductory man-on-the-street video in which Sun walked around the University of Washington campus asking students if they understood or had even heard the term "Web 2.0." Remember, these folks are the prime demographic for all of the Web 2.0 hoopla. Most, say 90 percent, hadn't even heard of it. So, what's that mean? Well, for one thing, the buzz words we throw around in rarified tech circles usually don't matter to end users. They just want to do cool and interesting stuff. They could care less about the underlying technology or how we as marketers try to brand it. It's important to keep that in mind as we help companies figure out how to talk about what they do.
The second interesting bit, at least to me, was the panel's view toward social networks. Not surprisingly, since it's the mission of his company, Elowitz thinks that eventually all websites will be social networks. Maybe so. But more revealing was the way the panelists themselves are using social networks. Machala, who was the, ahem, "senior" member of the panel, said she checks in with the two social networks she belongs to at most every other day. Sun said while he was once an avid user of My Space and Facebook, today he uses Facebook primarily to build a following for his own social network, essentially spamming (his own word) his many Facebook friends about the latest developments at Zoodango. Makofsky (who earned major karma points for not getting upset by Britton's non-stop references to the power and majesty of Google) said he's essentially abandoned all of his social networks in favor of Twitter. He got fed up with all the spam and silly apps and found Twitter to be a more than adequate replacement for Facebook's most useful feature: the status notification. ALL of the panelists were put off by the huge number of random Facebook and Linked In invitations they get. Again, so? Well, while I wouldn't argue that social networks have jumped the shark, there's clearly a transition happening. As social networks try to position themselves as platforms they become more bloated, reducing the value of their initial attractiveness. That's when users start looking for leaner, more purpose-built alternatives. We, as marketers, need to avoid placing too much emphasis on the value of individual social networks and stay on top of the emerging trends and demographic shifts in usage.
The final topic of the night revolved around data. Do you "own" the data you post online? Does each site own its users' data? The panelists, not surprisingly, skewed toward the data being the property of the sites, with some nods toward protecting privacy. But this is an issue that's likely to be up in the air for some time.
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Before the dinner, several local Web 2.0 companies demonstrated their wares. One of the coolest was Ripl. Essentially, Ripl lets you share your online life with your friends without requiring them to log into a website or click through a link. Instead, you install a small local client that automatically streams the latest pictures, music and websites you've visited to your friends' desktops (don't worry, you can customize what gets streamed) and vice versa. Ripl is currently in beta. But the interface was awesome, with pictures and web pages flowing across a floating window. The experience was kind of mesmerizing.
Hey, thanks for mentioning RIPL. We're all pretty excited about what we're doing here! If anyone would like to check us out we are starting a beta program very soon. You can apply here at: http://ripl.shorturl.com or find out more about us at http://www.ripl.com.
Posted by: Patrick Barthe | May 29, 2008 at 03:57 PM