Web 2.0 Expo: Day 2 Keynotes
As I mentioned yesterday, I only made it to day 1 and 2 of the keynotes. I tried my best to get there on time, but just barely missed the BART train I needed to get to Moscone on time to catch the beginning of they keynotes. So admittedly, these aren’t the best notes I’ve ever taken, and for that I apologize.
Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia: The Year of the Mobile Computer: Mobile Computers as Personal (Mobile) Computers
- Context is forming everything.
- Social locations are the future.
- Anssi showed video of the Morph phone, currently in development, and MAN does it look SWEET!
Ellen Miller, Sunlight Foundation: A Conversation with Ellen Miller
- Information is not public unless it is online.
- Real-time availability and disclosure.
- Creating accountability within government.
- Trying to do for data what open source did for software.
- Trying to redesign government.
Kevin Lynch, Adobe Systems Incorporated
- Kevin didn’t really talk about much except to demonstrate a new product they’re working on called Flash Catalyst. It looked REALLY cool; basically Flash meets Illustrator to easily design widgets and apps.
I was stoked to see Flash Catalyst because it appeals to my designer side, and that Morph from Nokia… consider a smart phone that can fold, wrap around your wrist, match color to your purse or outfit of the day, etc. Awesome!
Read MoreWeb 2.0 Expo: Day 1 Keynotes
Most conferences I’ve been to have one keynote for the entire conference, maybe one keynote per day. This conference had a bunch of keynotes all in one big block – every day! On the official Day 1 of the conference, April 1st, they had the keynotes in the evening after the sessions and before the cocktail reception, sponsored by Palm. The other days the keynotes were in the morning. I made it to the keynotes on the 2nd, but not on the 3rd, so those notes are coming tomorrow. Without further ado, here is a recap of some random notes I took during the first day’s keynote sessions.
Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media: O’Reilly Radar
- Google figured out how to extract additional data.
- Able to extract meaning.
- Starting to see coordination of electronic sensors.
- A meaningful names pace is a very powerful tool.
- Meaning doesn’t have to be formalized.
- The energy signature of major appliances are so unique you can identify the make/model by the energy surge.
- We’re getting beyond the point where the web is just fun and it’s starting to work.
- Web 2.0 + World = Web Squared
- History is on a different course because of someone being able to understand how to apply technology (President Obama).
- The Power of Less
- Take what we’ve learned with the consumer internet and apply it to hard problems.
- Build a simple system – let it evolve.
- Create more value than you capture.
- Continue to create, invent, and make value.
John Maeda, Rhode Island School of Design: “Open Source Administration”
- Developed the laws of simplicity.
- Forever Stamp the perfect example of simplicity of design.
- Technology makes things happen at light speed.
- The pendulum swung towards tech and now it’s swinging back to humanity.
- RISD is a traditional art and design school.
- Perfect symbol for American innovation.
- Used to have a hierarchy of leadership tree, turning into a network that you can talk to anyone in.
- Creative Leadership:
- Leading Creatively – example Steve Jobs
- Google creative leadership
Stephen Elop, Microsoft Business Division: A Conversation with Stephen Elop
- People are bringing in different perspectives.
- Has the benefit of learning from other areas of the business.
- Taking on the cloud: Microsoft working to combine offline.
- Will there be MS Office apps for the iPhone? Keep watching!
- Beta code for Office online soon (maybe next year).
- Software plus services.
- Sharepoint is the fastest growing product in the history of Microsoft.
- If they redo any interface, half a billion people use the products and would have to re-learn the software.
- OneNote is like Word on crack.
- Microblogging – will Microsoft get into that? They’re experimenting with it and blogs.
- There’s a joke that Microsoft is the evil empire, so Stephen gave Tim a “I am the Empire” shirt people around the MS campus have been wearing lately.
Amanda Koster, SalaamGarage: Imagine What You Can Do
- Telling stories that will make a difference in people’s lives.
- She told the story of a little girl and what it’s like to go on a SalaamGarage.com trip.
- Tell someone’s story through you, through your social media.
- Use your influence to educate to make a difference.
- It’s all for amateurs; not for professional photographers.
- They’ve used ReveNews
- It’s not a broad message, it’s one little girl, that you met, whose story you can share.
Michael Abbott, Palm, Inc.: High Order Bit
- New Palms run on a web OS
- Cards – multiple apps running at once.
- Palm Synergy – bring the data together in a single place.
- Notifications – notice manager.
- Web OS platform built with HTML, Java, and CSS.
- Doesn’t require a server to run.
Tim O’Reilly had very engaging and interesting things to say, and I loved listening to John Maeda’s presentation. Stephen Elop seemed to be on the defensive a little during the Q&A portion of their conversation, and what he said kind of ran on a little and I tuned out unintentionally. I appreciated Amanda’s passion and I really like what they’re doing at SalaamGarage, but towards the end it did sound like a Save the Children commercial. Finally, since I have a Blackberry that I love I kind of tuned out Michael’s commercial for the new Palm Pre, but it DID sound like a pretty handy little PDA.
I’m glad that they made the video of John Maeda available and I wish they’d have made the video of Amanda Koster available too, because they were both good speakers.
Read MoreWeb 2.0 Expo: The Social Media Trilogy: Three Vital Components for Building a Successful Online Strategy
Session Description: It’s time to look at the big picture – beyond starting a blog or getting your team on Twitter. To survive in these trying economic times, enterprises must adopt a trilogy of Web 2.0 fundamentals as part of their long-term communications objectives. This session leverages the experiences of some of the world’s most successful communities to help you develop a strategic vision for enterprise-oriented social media. Also included are several use cases that demonstrate the success of having organization-wide Web 2.0 technology and information on how Vignette is helping the world’s leading brands with their social media efforts. Takeaways include how Web 2.0 intersects with a broader online strategy, the social media success trilogy and how to integrate these fundamentals into your organization’s DNA. Sponsored by Vignette.
This session took place Thursday, April 2, 2009. The speaker:
- Gerardo Dada, Vignette
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this session was good.
Bullet Point Review!
- Only 12% rate their web 2.0 efforts as effective.
- Measurement is key.
- 40% of businesses have no real strategy.
- Web 2.0 is viewed as an immature medium.
- 2008 was the year of Trying, 2009 is the year of Embracing.
- How do you build a strategy?
- You don’t; web 2.0 supports a strategy. It’s a tool. Marketing, Customer Service, Human Resources, Corporate Communications, PR, product development, knowledge management, etc.
- People are looking for answers and information. They don’t care as much where it comes from.
- Social is integrated part of the web.
- How do you build a community?
- You can only foster a community.
- Participate in a community.
- People have persona’s and want to keep them separate.
- There’s nothing wrong with integrating technology buy you have to ask permission.
- Strategy has to be flexible enough to work with what’s coming next.
- Understand what people are saying.
- How do you succeed in Social Media?
- It’s about the people.
- Fundamentally change the company mindset.
- There’s a resurgence of the personal brand.
- Requires a mind shift and a new culture.
- Be Passionate!
- Develop a Strategy (set milestones).
- Have clear goals and metrics
- Without metrics you won’t get support from executives.
- Resourcing
- Needs to be on top of mind
- Promotion
- Marketing lead it, IT is jumping in now.
I didn’t write anything down from the Q&A portion, though I remember there being one. I think it was a lot of people asking specific questions that really didn’t have any kind of broad appeal to my readers here, but overall it was a good session.
Slideshow Presentation:
Web 2.0 Expo: Optimize Your Organic Search Results Leveraging Social Media & Blogging
Session Description: I’m all a Twitter ‘Cause your MySpace hurts my Facebook when I’m Linked-in – Learn how to leverage social media and your current website to DOMINATE search engine results and improve your organic rankings! Sponsored by Verio.
Industry expert and published author Heather Lutze gives you the rundown on her social media strategies from her new book, The Findability Formula. This breakout will give you actionable tactics you can implement immediately to get your website ranked higher in search engine results. Social media is HOT and delivers results if you know how to use them to their fullest potential. Learn how to use keywords effectively with Twitter, Linked-In, Youtube, Facebook, as well as your own company website to increase your search engine rankings. It is all about knowing and understanding the Findability Formula – and that is what you’ll learn in this workshop!
This session took place Thursday, April 2, 2009. The speaker:
- Heather Lutze, Lutze Consulting
Heather had a lot of great things to say; it was a shame that she didn’t have enough time to really go over it because of such a long pitch by Verio, the sponsor of the session. One thing Verio did that was annoying but I can’t really fault them for, was parking someone at the door and using the leads scanner to scan the name badges of the people coming in. Annoying, but since they were sponsoring the session, I can’t really fault them for it.
Bullet Point Review!
- Social media gives you a platform to position yourself as an expert in your field.
- Strategy:
- Connect with the right search keywords.
- Edit your social media profiles and elements with keywords.
- Track the results in Google search results.
- Know how users search:
- 15.2% are 1 word search phrases
- 31.9% are 2 word
- 27% are 3 word
- 14.8% are 4 word
- 6.5% are 5+ words
- The longer the keyword, the faster you’ll show up.
- Longer search terms are looking more to purchase, less informational or shopping.
- Resources: Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug and The Long Tail by Chris Anderson.
- Tool: Google External Keyword Tool
- Tool: Keyword Discovery
- Connect with the customer when they’re ready to take decisive action.
- Misspellings can rank highly (sometimes they convert higher).
- Look at the pages and be sure you actually want to show up amongst that company.
- Anything over 100 searches, long tail.
- Open tool, whats most targeted keyword, then write blog post (put the keyword at the front).
- Recommends All in One SEO Pack, ShareThis for WordPress.
- On LinkedIn, when you put your last name in put a dash and your keyword.
- Start on the long tail and work your way backward.
- Do it for your name, do it for misspellings, rank the whole page to push out the “sucks” terms.
Because of the 20 minute pitch for Verio at the beginning of the session, there was zero time for questions, which was a shame. I was hoping for some more real-world examples that weren’t just about Heather. There was time for one where a woman who is a voice-over talent was looking at it from her standpoint and Heather walked through the practical application, which was pretty cool.
Overall it was a good session once Verio was done talking, and I wish she’d shared her slides with the Web 2.0 Expo folks, but alas it’s not on their website.
Read MoreHow I Got a New Job in Less Than a Week
- Get laid off from your current employer.
- Email everyone you know within your industry. Let them know that you’re on the market and ask that if they see any opportunities, to pass them along.
- Don’t wait for answers; reach out to everyone and look at other jobs in the meantime.
- Don’t change your routine too much to stay upbeat.
- One of those connections pays off in the form of a new job.
- Start new job.
So, yeah. I make it sound easy. To be honest, it kind of was. So, this serves as a semi-official announcement via my blog here that I’m now an Affiliate Manager for Paulson Management Group, one of the most recognized and respectable outsourced program management firms in the Affiliate Marketing industry. I’m excited to join Heather Paulson and the team and keep on truckin’ doing what I do best!
I’m also going to step up onto a soap box for a moment and remind everyone how important it is to network within your industry! If I hadn’t made a fairly decent name for myself within the affiliate world, I’d probably still be waiting for a call back from some entry level marketing job here in the Bay Area. It helps to introduce yourself to people. Don’t forget that at the next industry event you attend; it doesn’t matter what your industry is, it’s important to network. Okay, end soap box.
Read MoreWeb 2.0 Expo: Smart Work: Embrace Change & Empower Your Teams to Drive Growth and Innovation
Session Description: In today’s global business environment, the only constant is change. Organizations who can respond quickly by leveraging agile business models and dynamic business processes are uniquely positioned to win. IBM Web2.0 software can help your organization be more effective and innovate in challenging times. IBM also understands first-hand that connecting with customers takes personalization, collaboration, community and co-creation. Come learn from and ask questions of our IBM experts that support enterprise mashups, social media software and Web 2.0 application development and learn how you can provide a truly collaborative real-time working environment for your employees, partners and suppliers and leverage your customer community. Sponsored by IBM.
This session took place Wednesday, April 1, 2009. The speakers were all from IBM:
- Kathy Mandelstein
- Ryan Boyles
- Brendan Crotty
- Tom Deutch
Okay, usually I think of myself as a smart cookie. But this session was way over my head, probably since I’m not an IT person or developer. I walked away with some interesting factoids, but no way to apply this to what I do. Maybe this will help you more than it helped me.
Bullet Point Review!
- 1 billion transistors for each person on earth.
- $11.5 billion worth of produce is wasted in India because of outdated post harvest infrastructure.
- US health care system loses more than $100 billion per year due to fraud.
- Up to 22% percent of total port volume is empty containers in North America.
- Cost optimization + agility = success.
- CxOs confirmed priorities:
- Processes
- Collaboration
- SOA Adoption (Service Oriented Architecture)
- Business Model
- Lotus live web conferencing, collaboration, and email.
- Jazz is an open collaborative environment.
- A mashup is a light application.
- IBM mashup center WebSphre sMash.
- Resources: Lotus Greenhouse, ibm.com/web20, Project Zero, Jazz Community Site (developers).
Developers will probably be better for reading this, so check out the slide presentation and I hope it’ll benefit you.
Read More
