by Rob Paterson
December 31, 2009 at 9:35 am · Filed under
Apple, Hulu.com, PBS, Public TV, Video, YouTube
I have cancelled my cable and have been connecting directly to the web for 2 months now. I am not alone.
I am nearly 60 – I am in the slowest group to do this and look at what is going on with the old farts! For the young, the choice has been made.
Why do I use the web?
- What I see is in my control
- There is loads of what I want on the web – mainly documentaries and music
- The pathways there – iTunes, Veoh, YouTube are good enough and getting better. In the US even more choice.
- The better content producers are going there – PBS is a long way along
- No Ads!!!!!!!!!!
- No paying for stuff I dont want
- I would pay for a better experience too
I use a simple mini connector on my MacBook to link to my TV set and use the screen management feature to synch the screens. In 2010 even these simple technical hurdles will go away. A better Apple TV? The new iSlate?
The point is for all who are in TV – the web will be THE channel by 2011.
PS – Radio is going web too (New York Times)
FM tuners are passé. Why include tuner technology to play a few dozen stations when you can harness thousands of radio stations over the Internet?
Unlike standard broadcast radio, Internet radio stations can be heard virtually anywhere (copyright restrictions aside), as long as you have a device that can go on the Web; that can be a PC, a smartphone or a stand-alone receiver.
An Internet radio station may have started out life as a traditional local broadcast outlet, and then management decided that it would be great to let people hear it everywhere. Or an Internet radio station may be nothing more than one person in a basement uploading music or talk to the Web, hoping that someone out there will listen.
Literally thousands of genres of Internet radio exist, from oldies, classical and religious to ultraradical talk, from the right and left. The first trick is finding them, and the next is playing them. Fortunately, with a little information, both tasks are rather easy.
TUNE IN To find an Internet station of a particular genre, start with the basics: a Web search. Type in “60s,” “NPR” or “Catholic” and the words “Internet radio” and you’ll come up with a list and links to those channels.
Another useful source is streamingradioguide.com. The Web site lists more than 14,000 stations that can be searched by genre. While extensive, the list is not complete.
Internet radio hardware and smartphone apps that offer radio transmissions don’t typically accumulate station offerings themselves; rather, they use aggregators, companies that create a selection of channels. On the Web, you can access radio channels directly from those aggregators as well; they include Reciva.com,Radiotime.com, Vtuner.com, 1.fm and Freeradio.tv.
In addition, Apple’s iTunes software (Mac and PC) offers hundreds of Internet radio stations.
So this is the reality – 2010 will be the Tipping Point when Radio and TV move to the web.
by Joe McKendrick
December 26, 2009 at 11:54 am · Filed under
2.0 Design Thinking, Enterprise 2.0, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0
Will crowdsourcing create more headaches than it was intended to solve? A new project sponsored by a prominent scientific association seeks to overcome this challenge.
We’re starting to see the possibilities from applying crowdsourcing to tough questions. Rather than rely on an limited staff of experts, some organizations are turning to much vaster online communities, with their ranks of potentially undiscovered experts. However, as many organizations either are or will be finding, this may be too much of a good thing. Turning to social networks for answers to problems may result in overwhelming volumes of responses. The risk with crowdsourcing, then, may be that it generates even more work for the core staff members engaged in the problem.
That brings us to the largest organization in the world, the US government. Is it worthwhile that the government look for ways to manage a crowdsourcing approach? Anil Dash, director of Expert Labs, a project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, proposes to extend the crowdsourcing approach to the public policy sphere. Federal agencies, he says, could benefit from the wisdom of crowds.
Anil hopes Expert Labs will serve as a catalyst to boost federal policy decision-making with an “entrepreneurial model that reaches out to places like Silicon Valley and the tech community as well as the policy community.”
At the recent Supernova conference held in San Francisco, Anil spoke with David Weinberger about the possibilities. And here’s a video of Anil discussing the history and possibilities of crowdsourcing at the recent Web 2.0 expo, along with his announcement of the Expert Labs project.
Of course, it could be argued that a democracy is a form of crowdsourcing. But administrative and technical decisions are often made at the high levels of federal agencies, based on input of experts and managers within or close to those agencies. Now, thanks to computer networks and social media, there is a tremendous opportunity to open up these processes to a wider world. By opening up perplexing questions to a broader community, Anil hopes to increase the diversity of opinions available to policymakers. “There’s a real opportunity for moving past the model today, in which we get expert opinions from a half dozen or a dozen people in a room for an hour or two,” he explains. “Today on thew Web we float a question to a couple thousand contacts. Imagine what we could do on a national scale.”
In the process, policymakers may have access to expert opinion that formerly was out of reach for various reasons. “There are many experts out there among us, they may not be accedited through the traditional means of earning a degree in a certain topic, or being a member of a certain organization. We can expose their views, collaboratively.”
Of course, crowdsourcing federal policy decisions to a wide online audience will result in an untenable amount of answers to be managed and filtered. This will be the second phase of the challenge, Anil says. “There will literally be too much to know. I think were going to be confronting questions such as ‘how do we define expertise?’ and ‘How do we define authority?’
To some degree, such a community will have an inner circle, Anid states. While the federal policymaking collaboration platform will be open to all, preference will be given to members of AAAS, for example, Anil points out. “We’re never going to constrain who can respond,” he explains. “But there are a lot of issues that are naturally going to do better with answers from the scientific community. And that is where where being a part of AAAS gives us an ‘unfair advantage’ that I’m really happy to make use of.”
Other criteria that will develop over time include previous contributions and votes from other community members. Expert Labs is currently working on tools and a platform to launch its crowdsourcing platform, as well as address filtering issues. “For this first year, we’re going to focus on developing a platform for getting questions answered,” Anil explains. “I think by our very social nature innately were going to get questions answered. I look at some of the communities that do a fantastic job of it online, and I know that is something we can tap into. If we set up the right reward and incentive structures, people are going to want to collaborate by their own nature.”
by Bill Ives
December 21, 2009 at 9:14 pm · Filed under
Event Announcements
This is the fifth in a six part series on Booz Allen’s award winning implementation of Enterprise 2.0, termed the Hello system. In June 2009, Booz Allen was honored with the Open Enterprise 2009 Innovation Award so it is a good example to explore in depth. In this fifth post we will look at the lessons learned. In the last post of the series slated for early January, we will look at the plans for enhancements. Walton Smith, has agreed to be interviewed for this series and his time is appreciated.
There were five main lessons learned. First, it is very useful to segment stakeholders by team and level. This can provide insight to their unique needs and interests. This segmentation enabled the Hello team to develop and adapt adoption strategies and messages. There were three main groups. The most senior and junior ones were the easiest to engage. First the new hires, part of the “Facebook” generation, expected access to the content they needed. This group did not yet have much content to contribute but they were relatively easy to engage in a social media based system. At the other end, the senior management understood the strategic value of the Hello system. They became engaged to provide leadership, support the firm’s investment, and serve as models for the rest of the firm.
The middle group, who had 5 to 15 years experience, possessed much of the valuable content and connections. They did not have the same motivations as the other two groups but it was essential to get them engaged. They needed to be addressed in terms of the business value to them and not in terms of introducing new tools or even approaches. For example, shifting messages from “use Hello to network” to “Hello can help you do your job better” was helpful. These people were used to one-to-one communication through email or in person. They had to be moved to see the value of one-to-many communication so others could access and archive their insights. Much of the change management efforts were focused on this group.
The second lesson was the essential nature of generating active and visible executive leadership to encourage and prompt use among teams and staff less interested in Hello’s resources. Sample efforts included coaching executives to help them model effective use of Hello. Getting this executive buy-in helped set cultural norms on usage of Hello. For example, they would send the request to their staff to complete their Hello profiles and made sure that their own profile was already filled out as a model. Leaders also posted discussion questions to forums and responded to feedback. Hello participation was used in annual assessments. This support also helped get the right funding and overcome organizational barriers. For example, it was essential to accomplish the integration of Hello with the firm’s other enterprise applications.
The third lesson involved recruiting early champions at all levels across geographies. This promoted viral adoption and provided an ongoing source of user feedback for the frequent Agile updates to the system. In addition, champions assisted in overcoming barriers associated with prior intranet services and portals. The Hello platform does not have a separate Help Desk service so the champions supported new users. I also think this personal touch was more effective than an independent Help Desk representative that does not have the same job functions as the users. Champions also put in the initial content so new users would find useful information when they first logged in. This was critical to getting people to come back.
The fourth lesson was the importance of profiles. Part way through the implementation, the Hello team did a stakeholder survey of a fourth of the firm. They found that those who had completed their profiles were more likely to use the system and contribute content. Focusing users on adding content to their profiles has lead to their further exploration of the platform and greater usage of Hello’s tools. They encouraged everyone to get their profile complete and pre-filled as much as possible with existing data from the HR system. This filling in of profiles also helped to clean up the data in the HR system, as staff would make corrections to existing misinformation.
The fifth lesson involved getting the key stakeholders engaged in the implementation process from the start. Building relationships with core services such as Human Resources, Learning and Development, Legal, Email, and Security became pivotal links to the firm’s structure, and tested the Hello team’s ability to partner internally. It is easy for people to say no when they first see things mostly completed and they were not involved. For example, the Legal people are more likely to just say no to perceived risks out of caution when they do not understand something. However, if they are engaged up front they will be more likely to come up with solutions to concerns and have a great sense of ownership of the issues. I have seen this myself on numerous knowledge management implementations (see for example, KM Stories: Part Four – Gaining Support at All Levels).
I think this is an excellent set of lessons learned. They all resonate with my prior experience. Walton added an important sixth one – be flexible. I would add – listen – and this was something they did at all stages. In the next post, I will cover their plans for the future and offer links to the complete series. If you use Twitter to comment on this series pleas use the hashtag #bahe20. Thanks.
by Rob Paterson
December 20, 2009 at 11:04 am · Filed under
KETC, Public Insight Journalism, Public Media, Public TV
What do I mean by the “Dreadnought Moment”?
In the 19th century, navies all over the world experimented to find the new model for the capital ship.
Like most organizations today who are trying to find the new model for the enterprise in the pub media context, so steel, steam and big guns meant that the wooden capital ship had to go.
So over the century, designers added these new features in a piecemeal fashion – wooden hulls were replaced by iron and then steel. Sails were reduced and then fully replaced by steam – reciprocating engines by turbines. Gun size increased. Turrets were introduced.
The ship on the left in the image above was the great capital ship of its time – about 1876 – it was called the Inflexible – no pun intended. It’s captain was Jackie Fisher who went on the be the First Sea Lord who commission Dreadnought – the ship on the right in about 1906.
Inflexible looked modern. It had all the new bits in some form – like many Pub Media stations or organizations. It had a Facebook account, Twitter, a blog etc.
But in reality Inflexible was not modern at all.
Here is HMS Victory in 1805 at the Battles of Trafalgar. Why Inflexible was not modern was that while she had all the new stuff – she was a prisoner of the culture of the Nelsonic tradition.
The core of her mindset set was that war was an heroic activity where the main point was to get as close as possible - many times touching the enemy and to use training and discipline to pour it on. Part of this culture demanded that the officer corps were men of character – read class was the key.
What Fisher saw that made Dreadnought so much a disrupter is that it had at the core of its design an entirely new mindset.
Battle was to be done at a distance – miles apart. All the smaller guns of Inflexible meant for close engagement could be disposed of. The key relationship was different. Dreadnought could sink the entire German fleet at the time on its own!
Secondly, engineering and technical ability was more important than class. Fisher set in motion events in officer recruitment and training that would open up the service to people who could offer this.
I fear that most organizations are doing an Inflexible. They pride themselves that they have all the bells and whistles but they have not put it all together AND they have not made the organizational changes to make the new WHOLE work as en entity.
But KETC in St Louis is building its Dreadnought now – building a new organization based on the values and the technology that changes the core relationship with the people outside and the people inside.
The Nine Network is the Dreadnought – a physical realization of all the new relationships and tools of the new.
More than a plan – the Nine Network will be ready in March 2010.
So what is in this room and why?
- Community News Pro - KETC is one of a handful of any Pub TV stations with a “News” function. The Beacon is a group of professional journalists – many from the Post Dispatch – who have come together into a network and who share premises with KETC. The Beacon have been recognized by the Knight Foundation as a key pioneer. They are also the only Pub TV partner who are using Public Insight Journalism. The Beacon represent the future of post newspaper local news.
- The Community itself – You see here the Community Room – KETC has pioneered convening the community to come together and to thus get stronger in dealing with pressing issues. The Facing the Mortgage Crisis Project not only helped bring together a wide range of St Louis Community organizations such as the United way and Beyond Housing but also helped nearly 70 other stations in 30 plus of the worst hit cities do the same in their cities. Meeting face to face with community organizations has become commonplace. Our Community Room is more than just a meeting room – it is a fully equipped media room. KETC has given the communities of St Louis a voice and a place to come together. Intractable issues such as diabetes, education, jobs etc can all be worked at here at the ground level.
- The Nine Network – A working “school” that helps the community get the skills to broaden their voice and power. The space just up from the Beacon is the Nine Network space. Here KETC will train interns and young St Louisans how use the new media to tell stories – for it is not just knowing how to use the tools but how to use them to effect that is the key. The focus of the Nine Network is not to teach the skills on their own but to use projects such as stories on St Louis, News items for the Beacon. The “students” will be like Midshipmen of the RN back in the time of Trafalgar – treated like grow ups with real jobs to do that help the whole “ship”. All the online world of KETC and the sweet spot where the online world AND TV come together will come from this full integration of the On Air and the On Line world.
- New Values of Community First - The Nine has TV, Web Video, Community and Journalism all in one space all feeding off and supporting each other. Most importantly the POV is to listen first to the community and to bring the community into everything that we do. This more than any other part of the Nine is the most important. Just as for Dreadnought – distance and technical skill were the values shift. The Nine, like the Dreadnought, brings it all together in one human space.
Classes will begin in January.
With the launch of the Nine Network’s physical space – KETC – will have a de facto new organization that does the Dreadnought – that embodies the new culture and that brings all the new and the old TOGETHER!
Watch this space as more is on its way.
by Rob Paterson
December 18, 2009 at 4:00 pm · Filed under
Facebook, Marketing
A few weeks ago I posted about a clever campaign launched by Ikea using fans and a competition. Now I hear that the rules have been changed to prevent this. I post in full a status report from “Inside Facebook”. Sorry about being late on this. Hats off to @jmorris106 for the tip
Three weeks ago, Facebook announcedsignificant updates to its promo/sweepstakes policies for Facebook Pages that have very practical impact for marketers on Facebook. For a deeper dive on the rule changes, see our analysis. But essentially, the new rules:
- Require all marketers to get explicit permission from Facebook at least 7 days before administering any promotion inside Facebook.
- Prohibit running any contests or promotions that require users to become a fan, interact with a feed story, or do anything else outside an application tab or canvas page in order to enter.
This means that “become a fan” contests, “status update” contests, “photo upload” contests, and any other kind of contest that requires commenting on or responding to items in the News Feed are no longer allowed. Rather, Pages must send users to a custom application tab to enter contests. This is good news for companies building Facebook Page tools for marketers.
Now, agencies and marketers are trying to understand whether these policies are being actively enforced, as many businesses and organizations have been experimenting with different types of contests to drive traffic and engagement on their Facebook Page over recent months, and several promotions that seem to violate the policies have continued to appear lately.
For example, a few weeks ago, an Ikea store in Sweden ran a promotion on their Facebook Page in which users who tagged photos of furniture with their names first won the items as prizes. A Facebook spokesperson told us today that the promotion was indeed in violation of the new policies and would not be allowed to run today.
And last week, Gillette, one of the biggest brands in the US, announced a promotion on its Facebook Page, saying, “Become a fan today and you’ll be entered to win a free Fusion MVP,” a clear violation of the new policies. Gilette is also redirecting members from a sweepstakes tab to a signup form on Gillette.com to enter the contest, but the status update still exists on its Page, and is confusing to multiple marketers we’ve heard from. A Facebook spokesperson said he was not able to comment on individual campaigns beyond the Ikea case when we asked earlier today.
