Thriving in the New Social Internet

The new social world of the internet represents far more than finding a friend on Facebook or keeping a diary on line for anyone to see. New Web technology, also referred to as social media or Web 2.0, is unstoppably shifting the way we communicate and interact with each other for business.

The question is not if this affects you, but how will you fit in?  Will you be a wallflower or the center of the party?

Expanding on the great Web 2.0  event (from last year) our expert panel will discuss new opportunities and challenges for companies in this dynamic environment.   Our focus will be presenting ways your business can understand, approach and thrive in this new social and communications landscape.  Don't miss out on this opportunity to leverage your understanding of web social architecture and how you can make this changing landscape work for you and your organization!

Hosted by Alberto Molina, President of Topaz Group Ventures an interactive media development studio.
Introduction - Upsidowning the Broadcast Paradigm and why Technology Comes Last

Guest Organizational Management and Web 2.0 experts:
Dr. Charles Kreitzberg, Web 2.0 and why you need to be paying attention to this now!
Anne Kreitzberg, Understanding the impact of these new social technologies on the organization

Each panelist will discuss their topic for 15 minutes followed by (surely lively) discussion.

Thriving with the Social Internet

No doubt the above can be improved, but it captures a part of what we discussed that makes intuitive sense to me and hopefully will start the conversation for the panel topic.

My approach to the topic might be something like:

• Technology Comes Last
  • Minority Report/Iron Man UI control
    • Evolution to Pure thought, Pure interaction: decreasing friction of interaction
    • Technology becomes transparent, serves thought
  • DNA of the toolset
    • Collaboration, diversity, massmind
  • Upside downing the broadcast triangle
    • Declining Cost of the toolset
    • the bottle neck moves from production to reception
• Survival
  • Apes on the savannah to Era of enlightenment
    • Human needs are constant: Manfred Max Neef
    • Maslow needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, enlightenment
    • tools change the paradigm: Sticks, Printing Press, Internet, Light Saber
  • Evolution to pure thought: decreasing friction of interaction
    • Pure thought requires: Transparency, Truth and Getting Naked: Give it Away Now (with sound clip from RHCP)
• Social Architecture in the Internet Paradigm
  • Bernoff and Li Social network participants: Inactives, spectators, Joiners, Collectors, Critics, Achievers
  • Bartle’s Player Types: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, Shooters
  • People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology

My idea is that social mechanics have essentially existed since apes started socializing on the Savannah, but the tools continue to change the social paradigm, or perhaps the social architectural dynamics.  Furthermore the internet brings us closer to interacting in a frictionless way around pure thoughts, and this paradigm has a unique and very positive dynamic related to enlightenment.

The way all of this relates to any attempt to create community using a web portal is it points out that it is important simply to start with the people and their contexts (i.e. Where they are and what they care about) and let that lead to a strategy built on specific objectives and THEN to technology that simply enables what your constituents are already doing.

There are certainly details to using internet tools effectively to energizing any community, but the gist is that the focus should be on the idea strategy.  The technology strategy is for technology to get out of the way altogether.