The Instragram added power for Facebook

With more than 40 millions users who are sharing pictures through the Instagram network, Instagram has given a whole new meaning (and destination) on photography in the 21st Century. While Kodak is fainting away, digital and mobile photography has taken over….with Instagram taking the lead.

The big little thing that drives Women crazy? This must be Pinterest!

Pinterest…It looks like something you cannot miss these days.
More so then Google+ Pinterest attract tons of new users who are active users of the (social) platform. For those who don’t know Pinterest, Pinterest is an online Pinboard on which you can “pin” and share stuff you like. With the linking to Facebook and Twitter, and the social aspect added by Pinterest self, this is an alternative way to share stuff you like. The difference from the Facebook  channel is you “pin” interesting stuff from around the web to the board, instead of telling what you like in a status-update. (Pinterest skips the 2 step Like function of Facebook, making things easier). But the integration of Pinterest on your Facebook Timeline makes this a winner!

Privacy, who cares? You better make a verb of the word privacy

Reading yet another ‘what knows Facebook about you’ – story just made me wondering…who realy cares about his privacy? And better yet, who truly knows the meaning of privacy, and is this notion of ‘privacy’ still relevant in the 21th century.

But first things first…what is privacy? I don’t want to take the dictionary a tell you a unique definition. For most people privacy starts where personal freedom ends. You want to be in control, and want to share people The stuff you want to share.

Apparently in the digital era there seems to be a double problem, because most people only see this definition as a definition of privacy…but there is a second approach to privacy: who owns your ‘data’? Because what you share on digital platforms isn’t yours anymore most of the time. The platforms own it, like Facebook keeps track of all your data, updates, photo’s,…. Most people don’t know this, few people care about it, but some people make a fuzz out of it. As the video bellow shows, Facebook knows a lot about you…but that doesn’t need to be a problem, what Facebook does with this data is the real question. They use it make personnal one-2-one advertising possible through Facebook Ads, and probably they will sell your date to who is willing to pay.

Flat World Competition is fierce – What’s hot today, is old yesterday!

The flat world….always on top of the newest evolution, platform and emerging trends. Last weeks my eye catched some of the new ideas and platforms of the e-buzz world. [Updated November, 28]

• Chime.in a competition for Twitter?
  While Twitter hits 250 millions tweets per month, a new microblogging platform entered  the room: chime.in
  Chime offers more than 140 characters and shows your shared short links and photo’s.  Besides a more visual approach Chime offers participants to gain a (small) profit. From adds which are sold to go with your pages, the profit is split. (Interesting idea….) You can also add your own sponsored adds to your page (from which you can keep 100% of the profit!….)
  This is an interesting business model! I’ll keep a close eye on this, and see if it can turn into a real success (and threat to Twitter)

• Google+ takes it up a notch with the integration off Google Apps
  Officially opening up the Google+ doors (so no beta invitation version) created a big hype with people signing up. A growth of 1269% was reached in september…So is this the real big launch of the Facebook Competitor..probably not. With 50 million members (and I’m not writing active users), we see a vast population looking at Google+. But are they convinced this is bigger/better than Facebook? Probably not, since Facebook launched it s Timeline and other top end features last month.
  But last week Google announced its incorporation of Google Apps in Google+! Now this is what I call a benefit. Online collaboration will become easy through Google+, this way Google+ really has a head start against Facebook. This way Google+ will reach a critical mass of active users, who will use Google+ as social forum but also as an online collaboration platform….in a better way Facebook services them! Again something to keep an eye on!

[November 27th, Update]

• Google to launch streaming music player within weeks notice….with a deep integrating in Google+.
  I just can’t keep thinking of the idea Google is trying fiercely to pimp his Google+ platform…hiping to attract more actual users (not only register, take a look and never come back).  Will this be the ultimate service we’ve been waiting for? Probably not, since Spotify has integrated with Facebook (and yes Spotify is coming to Belgium as well!….soon), and other services like Apple’s iCloud and the Amazon cloud offer the same service, with a huge back catalogue.  Again a problem for Google who’ll only get an agreement with 2 of the big 4 music labels…

• Pen.io a light weight, easy to use and fast publishing tool on the web. No huge accounts, just a page name and password and you’re set to go with this online tool. It’s not a blog, it’s not a social network…it’s just an online white paper on which you can easy share ideas, drafts, work together, ….
  No fierce codes, some simple tags and your set to go….this can be easy to use for people who’re not into the real publishing tools of the web, but still want to use the strength of the web to communicate with students, family, colleagues,…
  I’ve made this page in less than 2 minutes (including “registration”) so it can’t be that difficult….:-) )

[November 28th, Update]

• A new social network is beiing unleashed: unthink.com – again a new competition for Facebook, Google+, …
  Will this one make the difference? We’ll have to see, but Unthink.Com has made a USP of not taking the users freedom. Companies are as well invited to start social selling (the next big thing!) through the Unthink channel.
  “I want to be free, I want to control our own communications …” Unthink doesn’t own your data, and won’t sell it to advertisers, brands, ….
  How do they gain revenue? Every users needs to endorse a brand (and each brand will pay per user who endorses his brand). If you don’t want to endors a brand you pay 2$/year user fee….again great thinking regarding the business model! Who’ paying what….? And in the end, you engage with a brand who pays your fee, but gets a dedicated follower/endorser!
  In beta version now, but probably open for business soon….is this the Facebook killer we have been waiting for? Brand wise it’s an opportunity…let’s see if the people follow!
  Are you an Unthinker?

[To be continued]

ADM – Foyer: Fixing the media by Jo Caudron (MediaMorgen)

“Drama, Internet & Business with Jo Caudron”…a nice introduction after the small media storm Jo Caudron had to put with the last days.

For those who aren’t in on the dramadays of Jo Caudron: Jo tweeted a message of a company vehicle who passed him at high-speed during traffic works….nothing to big you would think: but he added the care plate and an action picture! After a lot of retweets by famous and less famous followers, a Belgian newspaper decided to do an editorial on how Jo had become a vigilante 2.0, without any further investigation or reply from Jo, and other parties. Jo ended up in a small media storm, gaining maximum exposure, and hopefully gets the debate going on privacy and social media! [to be continued]

But let’s get back on topic! Fixing the media…
Media itself is part of a perfect storm, who comes around ones in lifetime….there is a huge media shift happening because of the content explosion and change of media control. More and more people are becoming self serviced human beings regarding media usage (you watch TV whenever you want with delayed viewing, a non linear approach of linear media). This means a huge shift (and problem) for linear (media)companies.

The social media is the new internet (check for recent research on this topic – or soon in Flat World Education), which means this is a major part of your business as usual.  But instead of seeing social media as new business entity, you should look at social media as something that runs through your whole organisation and will affect every department in your organisation. This means your company will become completely transparent and accountable 24/7! This is a huge challenge, but will make companies smarter in the end.

And off course traditional media companies (like television stations, newspapers, ….) are in for a huge shift. Those media companies need to look for a complete new business model to survive the new media paradigm. But for the moment they don’t seem to bother at all…they push there traditional media in an online channel, or develop an app….but don’t rethink the business (model)! It still a long way untill we’ll have 24/7 up to date news with background stories embracing the dialogue….

But as always: embrace innovation, don’t underestimate in the long run but don’t overestimate it in the short run!

Facebook keeps up the challange! Are you?

As reported earlier Facebook is introducing Facebook 2.0 with a lot of new features and looks like the Timeline, Social Apps, …. As always change creates resistance, some people think this is cool, other think it sucks! Especially young people find the new feel, look and features of Facebook cool and nice, while older people tend to be more sceptical (change is always difficult, especially when you adopt slower!)?

But maybe this time our young generation (digital natives) needs to be aware of the impact of this change for other reasons then the older generations (digital immigrants). While digital immigrants have a problem with finding all the new features and menu’s for proper use, most of the digital natives have already found a back-entrance to create their Timeline….unaware off opening up their complete Facebook history (not to mention their whole internet history, as Facebook seems to be tracking this as well – unaware off course!). (Privacy) settings weren’t always top priority when we posted stuff in the past. So every post, pictures, like, friend, share, event, …. you added without settings creates an item on the Timelins.  So you better make time to scroll down memory lane, and find oy what you have been up to on Facebook the last years…and start editing/curating your stuff (again).

So take the necessary time to create the proper lists, (privacy) settings, lay-out, …. before you unleash the Timeline! If used properly and controlled this is a really nice instrument, which can/will be used to give a nice overview on people’s lives! BUT be aware off what you share with whom….your boss, clients, …. don’t need to see your latest beach pictures of party updates, while your employer of colleague(s) want to know what you’ve keeps you busy (and especially job seekers need to create a Timeline for future employers, giving them accurate professional information on who they are, what their field of study and interest is, prior jobs, ….) The Timeline is a strong instrument to be used this way!

Good luck picking up the challenge!

 

Social media as an educational tool

Education in the 21th century can’t be the same as education in the 20th century…
As I already stated in my prior post I’m a true believer of collaborative education where a teacher is a facilitator, the guy who gives a structure, and the students are the real knowledge workers.

A major role as a tool (never a goad) can be social media in every form you can think of; microblogging, Facebook, Blog, wiki, … Social media can be the platform to engage and enchant the students…but recognizes also the student as an individual learner! In my presentation I see a couple of challenges…and when I give this presentation, I can see they are real challanges; like mindset (both teacher and student side!), choosing the right algorithm for social media use in each learning context (which is always different – topic, subject, students, ….) and last but not least sharing of knowledge (breaking down the barriers and collaborate).

If you want to this presentation alive and kicking in your learning/working environment, don’t hesitate to contact me (flatworldbusiness@gmail.Com)!

A new privacy model and open data AKA the social web!

Time to talk about privacy, again….
It’s one of those aspects of the (near) future where some significant change has got to take place in the flat world.

First, the term ‘privacy’ is ambiguous online. What you share online is out to be seen, unless you have limited access through changing your privacy settings. We all know Facebook has a lot of privacy setting, where you, as the user, need to take action if you want your profile and data to be hidden from the general public. I deliberately use the term hidden….because only the people who have been ’cleared’ will have the chance to see your information, pictures, status updates, likes, ….
Once you have posted your data, pictures, …. on Facebook (and many others), Facebook ‘owns’ your information. It’s stored in huge data-centers where you aren’t allowed in to delete , or adjust your information, ….! You don’t have any rights regarding the posted/shared information. You can only hide it.

If you want to sign up on another social network you can take your data with you, so you have to start all over again. For instance, my LinkedIn profile is similar to my Facebook profile but I have to make 2 profiles and build the information twice.  Nowadays you can embed information from different profiles, but the rough profile data remain property of Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

That’s now….what’s up in the future?!

We need to switch so a social web environment where we, the user, own our data and are able to migrate those data between the different providers, social networks, shops, …. This means I have  full control over my data, and not only the hide option. Do I control my privacy, YES, but we’ve got to understand that what’s out on the web, is not private but public. A lot of people still believe that privacy in the 21st century is the same as in the 1980-ies. Privacy is not a right anymore, it’s a verb! You work on keeping things private.

The open data option, where we can move data around free and data isn’t stored in closed data centers,  is gaining more success recently. Small steps have been taken to set up open data streams….off course the general public isn’t keen on the idea of open data, where there data isn’t protected anymore by any privacy charter/legislation. But the general public seems to misinterpret this idea, since in this protected environment we don’t even own are data anymore (and companies like Facebook use our data to make money…I don’t have a problem with this idea, but I would like to have the opportunity to just adjust/delete my data). Off open data-streams like in the US, UK or the Netherlands, need good procedures and license policies, but we need this regarding the new future privacy model: open data, where the owner own his data but these are shared everywhere in the flat world through good procedures and licences.

Tim Berners-Lee on of the founding fathers of the World Wide Web, the flat world as we know it, talks about open data in a TED talk.

Are you ready for an open data environment?

It’s not Social Media, it’s Conversation

How to build your brand through conversation!?
Steven Van Belleghem, author of the conversation manager, describes in 5 easy steps on how you can build your brand through social media.

I’ve read a few posts this week on how social media isn’t working, or fails, or…. But if you read those articles most of the time it’s easy to understand why people write like that! They want measurable profit out of social media, and often (mis)use social media not to make a conversation but to push an advertisement.

Even in 2011 a lot of companies don’t get it! Web 2.0/3.0 isn’t about pushing your brand, it’s about conversation with your stakeholders!
Companies step in to social media, without a strategy, without a policy, even without prior web experience…of course in this situatin your social media fails!
Rethink your business model before step into the flat world!
Develop an online strategy and social media policy.
And then start the conversation….don’t push, interact!

The following slideshow points out 5 easy steps on how to build your brand through conversation:

• define a clear DNA – who, what and why
• define your touchpoints – where
• use smart activation – stimulate interaction
• observe – facilitate – join – be out there in the conversation
• think long-term – no immediate cash cow

More information on www.theconversationmanager.com

 

Social media multitasker

Who says only women can multitask? All active social media users, the digital natives, are real multitaskers!

Off course, it all about changing habits  of modern society through our intensive use of social media…driving a car  while talking to your co-worker on the phone (hands-free off course), or cooking diner while texting a message to your husband or answering mails, making appointments while you’re in a meeting, …. The new ways of communicating through the flat world technology has made it a lot easier to communicate all the time, and therefore multitask all the time. Who isn’t watching his Twitter, Facebook profile, email, … al day long?

Apparently this is called ‘infomania’ by classic thinkers….we call it multitasking! Apparently scientific research has proven multitasking to be less productive and most certainly less profound. Off course modern society, and its digital natives, never knew something else….they always have been connected and interactive…texting, mailing, updating their profile, tweeting, … I just don’t think we can turn back time, and stop this evolution. We will adapt, like we always do!

About the infomania….easy question? Who doesn’t want to be informed?
Problem is the exponential information growth which is attacking us. We have to teach and learn ourselves to deal with this mass information flow.
Mails, tweets, information is piling up, while you’re off-line (in a meeting f.i.), so multitasking is the only way out. At least if you don’t want to drown in the information tsunami.

Most of your partners, co-workers, friends, family, … want you to be up to date and answer them at short notice to the point!
This is evolution….just look at your own pattern of communication/media use 10 years ago – if you’re not a digital native off course.  Following infograph shows how we have changed, and how this affects our brain!

I would like you to comment on the consequences shown in this infograph….and participate in this poll!