Archive for September, 2010

Dear Malcolm Gladwell, the revolution will not (only) be tweeted…

Published on September 30, 2010 in Twitter and social media. View Comments

In his recent New Yorker article, Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted, Malcolm Gladwell asserts that the platforms of social media are built around weak ties, and that the web is,

terrific at the diffusion of innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, seamlessly matching up buyers and sellers, and the logistical functions of the dating world. But weak ties seldom lead to high-risk activism.

He goes on to say,

If you are of the opinion that all the world needs is a little buffing around the edges, this should not trouble you. But if you think that there are still lunch counters out there that need integrating it ought to give you pause.

Gladwell is referring to a civil rights protest from 1960 here, in which students sat down at a segregated lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. Over a period of days, the protest grew and spread to different locations around the county. These protests became a civil-rights movement that “engulfed the South for the rest of the decade—and it happened without e-mail, texting, Facebook, or Twitter.”

Perhaps Gladwell is correct in saying that there are often weaker ties between people in social media, in comparison to the stronger ties forged by close friendships in person. Having said that, what about the ties between people who have relationships both online and off? He seems to ignore the fact that many people who are good friends offline are also connected online, and communicate and organise on a daily basis online. Well duh.

In terms of activism, I do think that social media and the wider web can help word spread more quickly than previously. It holds the opportunity to get more people involved in a shorter time. In short, it can certainly help to garner support for activism, even so called high-risk activism.

Gladwell speaks of the civil rights protests being like a fever of dissent, with around 70,000 students eventually taking part. If similar sorts of protests began today, I could certainly see social media playing a role in helping to spread dissent and support. I could also see it helping to rally opposition to it, such is the nature of the web and social media.

I don’t think you can isolate social media from the rest of life, as Gladwell seems to be doing here. Surely if those same protests were happening today, the students involved, and their supporters, would almost certainly use social media to help spread the word and to get others involved. The “fever’ could certainly be aided and abetted by people using social media.

I have little doubt that if at some stage there is a revolution afoot, it will be tweeted, captured on mobile phone camera and uploaded, and maybe even streamed live to the web. Social media may well not be at the very root of the action that starts the revolution, but at this point I’m not sure how it would not be involved at some significant level. What do you think?

The web and the emerging paradigm shift toward sustainability.

Published on September 27, 2010 in business, clean tech, environment, social media and technology. View Comments

I want to pick up on an idea in a recent post I read over at GreenBiz.com. It’s a very brief interview with Tim O’Reilly on How the Web is a Sustainability Platform. The post is a precursor to their Innovation Forum being held in October.

Partly, I want to pick up on this concept because it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now too, and let’s face it, we do tend to gravitate to ideas that we agree with.

I think the idea of the web as an emerging sustainability platform also relates to my recent post The great human hive and the road not taken, which discusses increased connectivity in relation to an emerging global civilisation.

Earthrise NasaSeeing the whole Earth from space in images for the first time– the seeds of a paradigm shift? Earthrise image courtesy of NASA.gov.

In the interview Tim O’Reilly states,

One (parallel with the open source and Web 2.0 paradigm shifts) is that the Web represented a complete sea change in the media world. People were in denial for a long time and most companies completely missed the opportunity because they tried to marginalize it. In a way sustainability is an even greater change in the world of consumer products. People are still in denial. I think one of the big lessons from the Web is that things that seem to start small can actually be utterly transforming.

Well said. Furthermore, I have come to believe that sustainability is going to be THE key driver of business innovation this century. With every day that goes by, this seems clearer and clearer to me. This will involve a huge transformation – in the way we move around, the way we work, the products and services we buy, how products are produced,  how we create and deliver energy. With all the advances in technology we have made so far, it will not mean taking a step back to pre-industrial times as some people fear. Far from it.

I think it’s way bigger than the transformation brought on by the Internet and the digital revolution in general, but it will most certainly involve these too. How could it not? There was a time when I thought the internet would be the biggest innovation and transformation I’d see within my possible lifetime. I was wrong.

By the way, if you are interested, here’s a recent article from Harvard Business Review, The Sustainability Imperative, May 2010 (most of which is behind a paywall sorry). This article articulates this emerging paradigm shift in some detail.

In short, the two external references I’ve pointed to here (as well as many other voices around the world) are saying, get on board now or face being left behind as this paradigm shift gathers pace.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or do you see it going another way altogether?

Is Facebook aiming to trump Google by making money from ads PLUS virtual currency?

Published on September 22, 2010 in Facebook, Google, business and social media. View Comments

Further to my recent posts, 21 points tracking the rise and rise of the Facebook business empire and Facebook Credits coming to a bricks and mortar store near you, it seems that Facebook is aiming to eventually make around 30% of its revenue from Facebook Credits.

Facebook Credits are Facebook’s on–site currency. Credits can be used to purchase virtual goods in third-party Facebook games and apps. Facebook takes a 30% cut of Credits spent, leaving the app developers the rest.
Facebook Credits

If industry estimates are correct, Facebook is on track to make over $1 billion in revenue this year alone, so if Facebook Credits do eventually make up 30% of their growing revenue, that’s going to add up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

It has often been pointed out that despite its increasingly diverse operations, Google is still finding it difficult to add a significant source of revenue outside of its (huge) advertising business. This begs the question: if Facebook manages to succeed in making a lot of money from its advertising business AND from it’s virtual currency, will it end up having a more solid business model than even Google?

Wow, that would be something, and would certainly bode well for an eventual IPO. Of course…on the other hand, people could also stop using Facebook in such large numbers and the whole business could go into terminal decline.  It’s fun to speculate. What do you think will happen?

How social networks can predict epidemics, from ideas to flu viruses [Video].

Published on September 21, 2010 in social media, technology and video. View Comments

Here’s an interesting TED Talk from 2009 by Nicholas Christakis. It’s about how social networks of many kinds, not just online social networks, can be used to detect epidemics a lot earlier than previously.

We’re not just talking flu epidemics here, although he does discuss a study of the H1N1 virus they conducted within the student population at Harvard. We’re also talking about the spread of ideas and behaviours within networks.

While watching the video, I couldn’t help but think about the book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Amazon Assoc. link) by Malcolm Gladwell, which addresses similar ideas about the spread of ideas and viruses. If you’re interested in human social networks in general, it’s well worth a read too, if you haven’t already.

Needless to say, I find this stuff pretty interesting. Do check out this (20 min) TED Talk if you do too.

20 reasons why Earth Hour social media has worked so far.

Published on September 20, 2010 in Australia, environment, social media and video. View Comments

Last Monday evening I gave a presentation at Social Media Club Sydney, along with another presentation by Dae Levine, Head of Communications with Greenpeace. The topic of the event was “Lessons Learned from Not for Profits: Local Effort, Global Effect”.

I’m not going to give you a summary of the whole event here, as there are already decent summaries here and here if you are interested.  As has been noted by various people, the two different campaigns demonstrate how quite different approaches can yield successful results, depending on the objective of the campaign.

One of the most obvious and perhaps biggest differences in the two approaches is the ‘more party than protest’ approach taken by Earth Hour, compared to the more confrontational protest approach taken by Greenpeace.

Yesterday I blogged about another Greenpeace campaign which takes a similar approach in confronting Facebook. The campaign takes aim at the company’s inadequate measures in relation to addressing its growing carbon footprint. After the success of Greenpeace’s Nestle ‘Killer’ campaign, it’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.

For those of you who might be interested, I thought I might break down my presentation into a list of points identifying  the approach taken by Earth Hour, especially in relation to social media. In short, this is how and why I think it has worked so far.

  1. Good timing: climate change action is needed and wanted by many people all over the world.
  2. It’s a simple Idea and message. It’s positive, fun and hopeful. It’s more party than protest, which encourages a lot of people to get involved.
  3. Turning off lights is a powerful visual to help deliver the message worldwide.
  4. It involves people power, with a  grassroots driven campaign.
  5. Earth Hour is an open source brand. It’s available for anyone to use.
  6. The use of social media and user generated content fits well with the grassroots driven and open source nature of the campaign.
  7. For Earth Hour there are thousands of events organised worldwide, both official and unofficial.
  8. Earth Hour social media started organically and has grown as social media has grown since 2007. In 2007 Twitter was not mainstream, Facebook was smaller, YouTube was only a couple of years old.
  9. Earth Hour has access to, and the support of the global WWF Network to help with campaign organisation. For instance, in social media there are numerous official and unofficial social network profiles worldwide, in multiple languages and on multiple networks.
  10. The network is asked to respect the open source nature of the Earth Hour brand, to let go of the brand so anyone can use it.
  11. There are numerous unofficial Earth Hour supporter profiles and an overwhelming amount of  supporter generated creative content, which organisers encourage worldwide.
  12. Local agency generated creative content is encouraged worldwide.
  13. Numerous official and unofficial partnerships are developed with companies and organisations worldwide, to help spread the word and lend support.
  14. Throughout the year, bloggers are engaged and encouraged to write about Earth Hour  – from popular, influential blogs to environmental bloggers, to regional bloggers (in different countries and languages) to any and every bloggger. Earth Hour assets such as videos, images and logos are made available for use by bloggers when possible.
  15. The rewards of an open and available brand have so far, far outweighed the risks of letting it go.
  16. The approach by organisers to social media conversations is mostly “hands off”, letting conversations flow and letting supporters argue the case when there is criticism.
  17. Interventions are based on highly ‘offensive’ content only.
  18. Traditional and social media have worked together to make the campaign a success – from print to radio to tv to websites to mobile to social.
  19. Supporter–made creative content is showcased through official Earth Hour networks.
  20. On–the–night image and video uploads, live blogging and status updates are encouraged, to help support the event itself, in real-time.

Here’s the official Earth Hour 2011 video if you haven’t seen it yet :)

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