Archive for 2007

This is a cross-post from my arts and writing blog, Fusion View

Following from my post on SlushPileReader.com, where readers can vote for unpublished manuscripts to get a publishing contract, Amazon.com and Borders are also getting in on the act with their own versions of the democratic publishing ideal.

See the January magazine article Looking for a New Publishing Paradigm

These business models all rely on one of the characteristics of social media - user-participation. On the bookmarking site, Digg.com, you can bookmark on online article that you like and it will appear in a public page on Digg. Other readers who then follow the link to read the article you bookmarked can then vote for that item - the more votes it has, the higher the ranking on the Digg page and more readers will see it. Wikipedia is dependent on users making and editing entries.

In general, experts take the view that only 10% of visitors on a site participate in any active way eg leaving comments or other action that contributes to the site or enterprise offered by the site. Digg is very technology and sports biased. I expect that the people who populate Wikipedia are serious fans of whatever topic they are writing about and enjoy the kudos of being an expert. Many other user-generated site I’ve come across has a strong bias towards the interests of young guys with a tecchy, gadget-, sports-, or auto-focused interest. While there are many book lovers who are young guys, I have a sense that the majority are women who love books, the physical things, and may not have such a passion for reading their novels online - and have less of a fervour about being an expert. I would be very interested to watch how these publishing business models pan out and whether there’s going to be a bias towards sci-fi, fantasy and male-readership genres.

I also note that these ventures are all US based. America is notoriously self-focused when it comes to book publishing and it is hugely difficult to get your book published if you’re not American - even if, as a non-native, you write about a US setting with American characters, it’s very difficult to get it past the US literary sniffer dogs. I wonder if these ventures will let in more non-American manuscripts or if we will still find only US books getting through. (I don’t know if there’s a condition of entry that rules out non-US manuscripts - does anyone know?)

Am I portraying gender stereotypes here? What do you think? Please add a comment.

Pic: thanks to archangeli on flickr.com

Following on from my post about the founding father of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, who created HTML and the follow up, giving a bite-sized explanation of Web 2.0, here is an excellent video that animates the whole story from the humble beginnings of HTML code to the dynamic interactive arena that is Web 2.0 - and how Web 2.0 and social media is now making us re-think copyright, authorship, rhetoric and just about everything else.

Thanks to Lucy Soutter for sending me this video.

I received an email in my Inbox a moment ago from the Online Journalism Review reporting that a German website is calling on the world to declare today, 04 Oct, “Free Burma Day”. The article explains:

“The state-controlled media in Myanmar has been tight-lipped, to say the least. Communication with international news organizations has been spotty, and soldiers continue to turn reporters away at the borders. The message has been clear: “Nothing to see here.”

But armed with cell phones, cameras and laptops, common citizens and protesters stepped in to expose the conflict in real time. Some ran blogs of their own. Many dispatched pictures and videos of police violence to off-shore bloggers and news sites. Either way, they loosened the government’s chokehold on communication.

Now, with the ebb and flow of information from within at a standstill, the offshore sites are left to sustain awareness. A brand-new site out of Germany, Free-Burma.org, calls on bloggers around the world to post a “Free Burma” awareness graphic on any posts today, Oct. 4. Organizer Philipp Hausser talked to us about “International Bloggers’ Day For Burma” and the impact of Myanmar’s citizen-journalist phenomenon.”

You can read the full article Bloggers organize international day of support for Burmese freedom

I’ve been watching the escalation of the tension in Burma through the blogs and online news. Here are some links:

Burma Digest - disturbing photos, videos and reports from right there in the demonstrations.

YouTube channel of niknayman - including footage of a dead monk floating in a river

The Democratic Voice of Burma

The Times article on bloggers who risked all

Del.icio.us tags for “Burma” - these show items bookmarked by web users around the world who have found articles and videos on Burma and tagged them in their bookmarking account at del.icio.us. (There’ll be those related to non-political events as well)

To find out how you can take action, spread the word, do your bit, go to the Free Burma website.

You may have received two email updates today - my apologies. Since I switched over to the new delivery system, there’s a short snagging period while I iron out the glitches. Thanks for your patience!

I wrote about The World’s First Website a couple of weeks ago to share some of the research I’ve been doing on the history of the web for the book I am co-authoring, New Trends in International Public Relations.

My next batch of research takes me forward from 1991 when Tim Berners-Lee created the first website to 2004 and Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media, a leading computer book publisher, and internet thought-leader. O’Reilly coined the term “Web 2.0″ for the first Web 2.0 Conference.

The website for that milestone conference states “The Web 2.0 Conference is of, for and about the leading figures and companies driving innovation in the Internet economy. The conference will debut with the theme of “The Web as Platform,” exploring how the Web has developed into a robust platform for innovation across many media and devices - from mobile to television, telephone to search.”

O’Reilly’s article “What is Web 2.0?” offers a detailed analysis of the design concepts, technological infrastructure and online user-behaviour that make up Web 2.0. You can also read the original press coverage and presentation files from 2004 for an in-depth course on all the issues - see the Additional Resources section below.

For present purposes of this bite-sized history lesson - the phrase Web 2.0 is generally accepted to refer to online media and platforms that have the following characteristics:

• Content is user-generated - think of YouTube which provides the platform for you and me and the rest of the world to upload our own videos.

• Collaboration - users work together to produce the information on a site. The most famous is probably Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia that anyone can write for or edit. There are also other sites such as Hotspotr, where anyone can upload information about cafes and other public places with WiFi access.

• Conversational - people can engage and discuss whatever issues take their fancy, from politics to gadgets to knitting. Think of blogs, forums, message boards, chat rooms

• Immediate - the applications are easy to use, easy to publish, easy to receive information from and also instantaneous, thanks to the RSS feed.

• Searchable - beyond Google and search-engine search, tagging allows users to assign keyword tags to content or data that they publish to make it more searchable and sortable. As more users use more common keyword tags, the database of knowledge grows even more - so to some extent, tagging also falls within “collaboration”

• Community - forums and blogs as well as social networks like Facebook bring people together online

• Open source - platforms like Facebook open up to developers so that a multitude of applications can be built around the core platform, faster and with more ingenuity than one central initiator might manage.

I’m sure you can think of other characteristics - please do add a comment or email me your examples!

So Web 2.0 is not really a new “version” of the web - there wasn’t a point where someone created a whole new software version of what’s online (like Microsoft issuing Windows Vista to replace XP). It’s more a state of mind or state of online interaction - and the phrase “Web 2.0″ is a useful short-hand to refer to the evolving way that the internet and online applications are being designed and used. You might just as easily refer to the “social media web” as social media tools - ie interactive online tools like blogging, podcasting, tagging, widgets etc - make up a large part of what is called Web 2.0.

Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know by adding a comment or sending me an email via the Contact link.

Additional Resources:

What I find interesting about articles and resources about the web or social media from a few years ago is that they take you back to the first time that concepts that we now take for granted hit the mainstream and it’s fascinating to see the commentators of that time analysing the impact that such technology would have and making predictions for the future. They say that a week is a long time in politics - on the internet, 3 years is like several hundred years: reading articles about social media from just a few years ago can be almost like reading the reports of people who were seeing the steam engine for the first time….

Web 2.0 Conference (2004) coverage - including articles on RSS, search, a look back Yahoo!’s first decade and the evolution of the web into interactive networks.

Web 2.0 Conference (2004) presentation files - including those from Technorati’s David Sifry on the State of the Blogosphere, Mary Meeker on the Internet in China and the founder and CEO of Craigs List.

While the majority of businesses and the mainstream are still wondering about dipping their toes into the Web 2.0 waters, the innovators and thought leaders will be looking beyond Web 2.0 when they gather for the 2007 Web 2.0 Conference on October 17-19 this year in San Francisco. The theme for this year is Discovering the Web’s Edge: “Surprising as it may seem, the Web has not infiltrated every industry–yet. So this year, we’ll delve into nascent innovation and attempt to parse the only-just-beginning-to-be-discovered territory at the edges of the Web. In 2007, we’ll slip past the mainstream and follow instead the road less traveled, the path taken by visionaries and those inspired by forces other than the tried and true. Who are the major players willing to take on new challenges, and the Davids that hold the promise of becoming Goliaths? What Web shortcomings still need to be overcome if we are to truly take the plunge into the next generation–and convince the next generation that we are listening? How can we respond positively to the cultural sea change the Web poses rather than being engulfed by it?”

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This post is part of my research project for the book New Trends in International Public Relations that I am co-authoring with business communications expert, Silvia Cambie. I am focusing on the social media aspects while she is working on the wider public relations issues.

You can find all my posts relating to this book project by clicking on the link in the sidebar New Trends in International PR under ZenGuide Projects.

If you have any comments or thoughts on any of the issues I’ve discussed in my posts, please do add a comment or email me. In particular, if you have any additional information or expertise that could add to the book, I would love to hear from you. Also, if you think that there are errors or inaccuracies in what I’ve said, I’d like to learn from you. I’ll credit you, of course, if your contribution is used directly in the book - you can check out my ongoing list of acknowledgements online. Please note that all contributions in respect of the book are subject to the terms set out in contributors release notice.

Photo: thanks to Mr Noded from flickr.com (CCL)

by Angie Macdonald

My friend Andrea * asked my advice recently. She is in the process of setting up a new business offering personal development workshops and wanted my input on her website design. As she explained her vision for the business and showed me the mock-ups of the website, I could see some common pitfalls that would detract from her great business idea, if left untreated.

Focus on one idea
The first problem was that Andrea was trying to do too much. She had so many ideas for the new business, including selling beauty products and a range of organic health drinks, but they didn’t all fit with the main purpose of the business, i.e. the workshops. She needed to focus. If those other business ideas were going to be developed further they needed their own websites, separate from that of the core business.

Think in the box
People find it very difficult to deal with more than one idea at a time. Think about Hollywood actor Ethan Hawke and musician Nick Cave who have both published critically acclaimed novels. Do you ever see them referred to as writers? No, because we already know them as an actor and a musician and their secondary careers confuse us. As humans we like to categorise things, put people into boxes, and this is what people are going to be doing when they visit your business website. Don’t confuse your visitors by offering too many different things.

Don’t litter
Secondly, Andrea had too many navigation buttons littering her home page. Some of these could be reduced and others deleted. For example instead of having a separate navigation button for the history of the business and another for the staff photos and biographies, a single About Us button could link to both. A perfect example of this is the Innocent Drinks site, one of my favourite business websites.

Keep things on a need to know basis
In her enthusiasm to put as much information as possible about the new business online, Andrea had blurred the boundary between information that is important to a website visitor and the internal information for her team working in the business. Think carefully before you include things like your Mission Statement or your company’s goals. Your business website should always be focused on your target audience and their needs.

Mind your language
And finally, the most crucial piece of advice I gave Andrea was to watch her language. People come to a website because they are looking for information. And they find that information by READING!

Keep the language simple and user-friendly. Put the thesaurus aside and leave out the jargon. Language like that is distancing and can be annoying. Speak directly to your visitors and view your site through their eyes. That means plain English, a friendly conversational tone and a chance to engage with your potential clients or customers.

What visitors read on your site is the most important part of the whole experience. If the words on the site draw them in, speak to them, and help them find what they’re looking for easily, then they’re going to reward you by coming back for more.

~~~~~~~~~~~

*Name and details changed for privacy

Photo: Thanks to Mash Down Babylon from Flickr.com

You might like to come along to a discussion panel at the City Womens Network (CWN) on “Social Media: Online Communities” on 18 October ( 18.30 - 20.30pm). I’m one of the speakers along with a number of other web, digital marketing and business PR experts.

Here’s the blurb:

Using social media to build an online community around your business can be an effective way to retain clients, bring in new ones and raise the profile of your enterprise. In this panel discussion, we explore practical steps you can take to create and manage an online community relevant for your business.
We are proud to have selected a panel of speakers:

Yang-May Ooi, founder of social media consultancy ZenGuide and experienced blogger, will talk about strategies to keep your visitors coming back to your site and to develop your brand’s presence online.

Giles Colborne, President of the UK Usability Professionals’ Association and Managing Director of cxpartners, will guide you through the roles and responsibilities in managing online communities.

Kristen Berg, marketing strategist, looks at some examples of how brands have used communities, the strategic role they play and the potential value to the company.

Silvia Cambié, Director of Chanda Communications and Chair of CWN’s Membership Committee, will be moderating the session.

Organised by the Membership Committee. For more information, contact the organiser, Silvia Cambié, on silvia[at]chandacom.com.

Venue information:
Hosted by CO3 Limited
First Floor, Downstream Building No. 1, London Bridge,
SE1 9BG London, GB
nearest tube is London Bridge.

Time: 18.30pm
Date: 18 October 2007

Members: £20
Non-members: £25 (men welcome as guests)

It would be great to see you there. If you’re coming, email me and I’ll let the organisers know.

Last week, I attended a City Womens Network drinks reception hosted by haute couture fashion designer Roubi L’ Roubi in his studio in the City. I chatted to Roubi about the presentation I had just given at the Copyright Licensing Agency earlier that afternoon.

In contrast to the social media approach to content - where bloggers freely use photos from other websites and video-makers create mash-up movies from other people’s footage - the traditional approach to content is to protect it from being used by others without financial payment.

The main theme of my presentation to the rights-holders was that there are other currencies and values to be gained from taking a more free and easy approach to your content - kudos and community, fun and creativity can be used by content creators to disseminate their work and their reputation more widely than the old protectionist approach and in this way, create a more valuable brand and a larger market for their product.

Roubi, who creates amazing ceramics and large canvas paintings as well as beautiful fashion designs, nodded enthusiastically. “It’s much better to share and be open with your work than to hide it all away!” he said. In the fashion business, designers look at designs created by others for inspiration and develop and build on those designs to make something entirely new - but there are also those who copy an idea out-and-out. Roubi’s take on this is: “If someone copies you, it’s an inspiration for you to get new ideas, keep moving ahead, keep innovating. That’s business. You have to be a leader and keep creating and being the best. You can’t stand still in business. Creatively, it’s a good way to be challenged to come up with new ideas.”

This entrepreneurial take from a successful creative designer was striking for its contrast to the worries and concerns expressed at the copyright meeting earlier that day. As a novelist, I completely understood those concerns from the afternoon discussions and yet, as someone involved in a creative online business, I also immediately connected with what Roubi was saying. Looking at the social media, marketing and communication businesses out there online, it’s easy to see that the millenial approach of openness and sharing is very much to the fore. Here on the ZenGuide blog, I offer advice and tips and share my views for free in the same spirit.

Roubi told the story of a jewellery designer who had created an innovative design for a delicate and exquisite necklace. The necklace was sold only through one retail outlet in London. The designer had not sold many over the years but had not wanted to make it available in more outlets because she was afraid it might be copied. It didn’t make any business sense, Roubie commented. His story reminded me of the self-defeating approach of the Bertolt Brecht estate I mentioned earlier this week.

I want to leave the last word to Roubi, who emailed me some additional thoughts on succeeding in life and in business:

“My two rules of thumb:

- open your little black book and share with others.

- be transparent with work and open to others.

They serve me well and make me enjoy attracting people with same attitude to life.”

I will shortly be switching email notification providers from Feedburner to Feedblitz. The advantage of this is that, instead of receiving an email every few days, you will receive a weekly email digest of the latest posts on ZenGuide. This will minimise the number of emails coming into your Inbox while keeping you regularly updated with news and top tips on social media issues.

You don’t have to do anything to continue receiving weekly updates from ZenGuide. You will get an email from me soon saying “ZenGuide is changing newsletter delivery services” - this will have some helpful information about the new service. After that, the new service will deliver the weekly email to you every Thursday.

If you have any queries at all, please get in touch with me via the Contact link.