Archive for the 'Hot Issues' Category

Today, I’m going along to the Copyright Licensing Agency to give a presentation at their open meeting on the impact of digital media and Web 2.0 for copyright stakeholders. It was somewhat last minute as their original speaker for the Web 2.0 segment, Giles Colbourne, a web usality expert at cxpartners, was unable to attend due to a conflicting engagement in the US. Giles asked me to step in last week so I spent most of this last weekend, putting together the presentation and slides.

While thinking about the issues to bring together for this talk, I found myself having a vested interest in both sides of the rights-holding debate.

As a a writer in print media, with two novels published, a third book (non-fiction) in the works and articles published in magazines to my name, I am fully in favour of my creative rights being protected by legislation. The reason is primarily to do with the monetary currency that I receive in return for my work from the bodies who publish my writing. As a professional writer, I expect to be remunerated for the work I create.

As a blogger and free-wheeling consumer of social media on the internet, I’ve got used to the idea that stuff from the web should be free - other than real-world-type things that you have to buy like CDS, books, groceries online or software of a certain level of high complexity that is worth paying money for. People create videos on Youtube and give you an embed code so you can embed (publish) it on your own site. Musicians create podsafe music for the joy of distributing their music to millions online even though they may not be able to get a record deal. I spend as much time - if not more - writing on my blog for free, compared to how much time I spent writing my novels, for which I was paid. Others offer their photos under the Creative Commons Licence so we can enjoy their creative work for free. The idea of having to pay for social media stuff in order to remunerate their creators feels like anathema.

This makes me feel strangely schizophrenic.

But I think the answer to breaking through the apparent conflict is in how we value the content we create in different media.

In my post last week on the world’s first website, I discussed the founding principle behind the world wide web and social media - the principle that information should be freely available to anyone. This is seemingly at odds with the traditional view that information and intellectual property has value and if you want it you need to pay for it.

In the traditional model, the value lies in scarcity and protection. In the new social media model, value lies in abundance and in sharing.

What I’ll be exploring in my talk to the CLA is what value the web’s open source principle has to offer to us offline content creators and publishers - and how we might look to take advantage of it, which I hope will be an interesting and useful approach for the writers, publishers and rights agents who will be attending.

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For delegates attending the CLA open meeting, you can download my presentation slides on The Impact of Web 2.0 - I will be making the password available at the meeting.

ymcla

This Saturday is the Live Earth event - 7/7/7. What is it?

“Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.”

As part of this event, you can sign up to their Twitter feed and receive tips via your mobile phone on what you can do to help save the world. Here are some sample messages from their feed:

“Shading windows. It can lower your home’s temperature and reduce your cooling costs by 30%. Answer the Call at liveearth.org.

Cutting down. If 1 million people cut down their trash by 10%, we could reduce our CO2 emissions by 50,000 tons. Learn more at liveearth.org”

All you have to do is sign up to Twitter via www.twitter.com and go to http://twitter.com/LiveEarth070707 to add Live Earth as a friend.

The people behind this campaign are SOS an ” ongoing messaging campaign and larger movement behind Live Earth.” According to their “About” section:

“The SOS campaign is using a powerful multimedia platform - short films, television and radio PSAs, an interactive web experience, books, the Live Earth concerts themselves - to provide a global audience with the tools to tackle the climate crisis.

This multimedia campaign will ensure that the message of Live Earth echoes long after 7/7/07.”

This is an important campaign that will benefit all of us - and future generations - so it’s well worth signing up for.

As an aside, my feeling is that this is what many communications strategies need to look like in the future - whether you are a not-for-profit, big business, small enterprise or solo professional. As we all become multi-media smart, it will become increasingly important to spread the word about your event or product or services across a number of platforms in an integrated way. For small businesses and solo professionals, the interactive multi-media tools of Web 2.0 are cheap - often free - and easy to use. There are great opportunities these days for the enterprising small player to make big waves via the internet without a huge budget - all you need is a readiness to engage with the new technology.

Some ideas:

* start a blog and make your presence felt on the internet

* use podcasting to chat more informally. Writers could read extracts from their books. Record a speaking engagement so those who couldn’t be there can hear your speech.

* create presentations to show online. There are tools available to post slideshows eg Zoho

* record a video to show online. Facial expression and tone can convey warmth so much more than just words - what about a short presentation by your Chief Executive reporting on your company’s annual results?

* use Twitter to send out regular short messages. Executive coaches can twitter their clients daily encouragement or actions to boost confidence and productivity.

Photo: thanks to smh.com.au

A recent online survey by the Recruitment Employment Confederation (REC) confirms what some people feared was true. Employers check up on potential employees before they hire them - and there’s no easier way then via the internet. You google people you know, don’t you? The ones you’ve just met or are about to meet; your friends and associates; your lost love? So it figures that employers do, too.

The survey shows that 86 per cent of the 298 recruitment consultants questioned think candidates should think twice before putting certain information on the Internet for fear of it affecting their chances of employment. The REC press release on their site reports:

Tom Hadley, the REC’s Director of External Affairs commented: “As more employers take interview shortcuts and rely on Internet searches to filter out unsuitable candidates, it’s vital that job seekers take their Internet footprint seriously and keep in mind that it could affect their job prospects.

Before posting any personal details on the Internet, candidates need to think twice about how an employer might perceive them.”

This is of particular concern for the “millenials” - the 75 million young people born between 1977 and 1998 who are the main participants in social network sites like MySpace and Facebook where they let it all hang out, sharing their views, thoughts, mis-adventures and much more - often in casual, coarse or uninhibited language as well as photos and videos that might be fun and crazy in that context but shocking and inappropriate in a career context.

On the other hand 51 per cent of the recruiters thought that recruitment agencies may find themselves with fewer candidates to place as social networking online becomes the new way for people to find jobs. Think of the professional online networks like LinkedIn (for business people and professionals) or MyRagan (for business communicators).

While it is worth noting these concerns and thinking before you blog or video yourself or post a photo of yourself in horseplay, bear in mind that we are in a time of change - and fast change at that. At one time, Richard Branson was a maverick because - shock, horror - he didn’t believe in wearing a tie to a business meeting. These days, among the old guard, there are new businesses with new work/ life values - think of Innocent smoothies, Google, Yahoo! , any tech startup and indeed, Virgin. Perhaps as the millenials grow up and rise to positions of power within companies and businesses, they won’t be so concerned about the shenanigans of other millenials documented online. They will be the ones recruiting each other via social networks and maybe their criteria might include “Proven drive and energy - please link to your MySpace video showing wild partying and to the software application you designed the morning after”….

As it is, a recent Twitter job ad for an Operations Engineer included this line: “Must have: excellent triage skills, mild manner, rockstar inside (ready to rise to any occasion), strong interest in Twitter.” (my emphasis).

Personally, the one finding from the report I found the most disturbing was this one: “71 per cent said something written in the ‘other interests’ section of a CV has put employers off taking candidates through to the interview stage”. What?! There was a time when you needed to put something in that section to show that you were a well-rounded person. Now, it looks like some companies want only one-dimensional entitities, rather like robots who will work and work and work and nothing more. Having interests outside of your job is not only healthy but also contributes to factors that make you do your job better - like motivation (quality time with your family brings you bouncing into work the next day), creativity (working on a complex hobby can stimulate ideas for complex problems at work), diverse and transferrable skills (volunteering on a committee brings team building skills to your job), people skills (having friends helps you get on well with co-workers and customers), networking (that person you meet at playing cricket could bring in some work for your company) and the list goes on …

What do you think? Do you let it all hang out online? Or have you never taken the step to blog because of exactly these worries? Add a comment or email me and share your thoughts.

Photo: thanks to Xamonich from flickr.com

NOTE: ZenGuide is updated Mondays and Thursdays

Continuing the Conversation from the social media discussions in Slovenia….

One of our round table participants held that one of the core values of blogging is its openness for everyone to take part, to add their comments, to disagree or disagree, to share ideas. That gives blogging and social media its vibrancy and energy and it is through open conversations without centralised control that fresh ideas emerge, freedom is embraced and exercised and democratic principles are lived out in the flesh.

Is there a place for private blogs or private networks? Can an online space that is public and open to all in some situations restrict one’s freedom to express oneself fully and truly? Some possibilities come to mind:

• a forum where bloggers who have experienced cyberharrassment might want to share and support each other.

• a business network where financially sensitive information needs to be discussed

• a network where business leaders may wish to network freely with each other - be able to disagree, argue, debate etc without what they discuss being open to misinterpretation to those not within their industry

I’m sure you can think of other examples as well.

It can be very valuable for victims of trauma to speak openly about their experiences without feeling judged or put down by others. Public spaces on the web can be uncivil and unruly, jostling spaces, just like any street or the subway in rush hour. A safe space for such discussions would need to be private.

Similarly, with any other matter that is sensitive whether financial, personal or in business, private networks may be the only way that social media can be used effectively.

Debate, discussion, disagreement and argument in are all part of the process of negotiation or coming to a decision or consensus in the Western democracies. Sometimes there are disagreements between people on the same team or same Board or the same committee while they work out their ideas and before they come to a firm conclusion. It may be that where social media is used to facilitate this process, it needs to be private between the relevant people so as not to have the process hampered by those who are not meant to be involved in that process. It also may not be appropriate for these people who are playing on the same team to be seen by their stakeholders in the process of the disagreement if that is going to be misinterpreted as a problem in the leadership and cause unnecessary instability within the corporation or their market - when in fact it is merely a process of interrogating an issue that will ultimately be resolved.

I find this issue a challenging and very interesting one. I agree whole-heartedly with my colleague who upholds the value of openness and lack of controls on the blogosphere as a whole. And yet, I find that there are circumstances when in fact you can only have openness within a ring-fenced “safe” area.

What do you think?

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Photo: thanks to Aaron Jacobs on flickr.com

Note: ZenGuide is updated Mondays and Thursdays

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The world was horrified by the events at Virginia Tech last week when a student went on the rampage and shot fellow students and teachers at the campus, killing 32 people. Like many people following the unfolding of events, I am saddened by this tragedy and offer my sympathies to the families of those killed and injured.

Traditional media

When I hear about such horrific things in the news, I turn first to the press and traditional media. I expect to get from that source a reliable and factual reporting of events. We trust the traditional media because we know they cross-check stories and are careful to distinguish speculation from facts and opinion from reportage. Professional journalists arrive at the scene and start finding out what happened, talking to people who were involved, getting stories from witnesses and taking photographs.

New media

With email and social media tools like blogging and Twitter - and the ubiquitous mobile phone, the people involved and others who witnessed the Virginia Tech shootings began spontaneously to tell their own stories, in some cases even as the events were unfolding. The Guardian reported on 17 April that the traditional media was looking to websites for their sources:

News outlets turned to CollegiateTimes.com and PlanetBlacksburg.com, as well as to amateur reporters huddled in college rooms or near the scene who were sending frantic emails to friends and media organisations such as CNN.

CollegiateTimes.com, the website for Virginia Tech’s student newspaper, filed up-to-the-minute online dispatches.

Students were using Facebook and MySpace, social networking sites, to express their responses to what happened, sharing their shock and grief online as they might have done coming face to face in a crisis. ABC News reported these comments from students writing in Facebook:

~ If you are okay! Please update your status in facebook to say something like “I’m okay”

~ We need to get a facebook group started to keep this news story factual and not sensationalized.

~ I too started getting messages from people from different countries wanting more and more info about the incident. Some even went to the extent of asking me to record my reaction over a video cam and send it to them. Disgusting!

Suicide Video

Later, it emerged that the killer, Cho Seung-hui, had compiled a suicide video and digital photo album which he sent to NBC, a US television network. The Guardian reports that following the TV broadcast, the tapes were “rebroadcast instantly around the world on TV and online represents the sinister side of user generated content….The NBC video is the most visited story on the BBC news website and dominates the front page of the Sky News site.”

Plays posted online

Cho was a literature student and wrote plays which centred around murder, paedophilia and revenge killings, according the London Paper, which also reports that two of Cho’s plays “were posted on the internet by Ian MacFarlane, a former classmate of Cho’s.”

Two sides of the media

In this one terrible event, we see the two sides of the media, both traditional and new. The two forms of media can be a source of news and information - and also, a prompt to voyeurism and the unsavoury desire “to know all the gory details”. Social networks can be a place where people can support each other and talk about what happened on the path to healing - or a place for gossip, rumour, hate postings and dark rantings. We can gain fame or infamy by the mere fact of being on TV or online alone. It is hugely disturbing that killers such as Cho can become celebrities overnight for one heinous, savage act and their poor creative efforts pored over like great literature - where they might otherwise trudge on unnoticed and uncelebrated in their lonely lives if they had done nothing at all. For people like that, there is no reward in being good and a huge reward in being evil.

I was in two minds about writing this post. I didn’t want to this post to be yet another space where Cho and what he did is noticed and given airtime - “rewarded” with attention. Yet, it felt important to discuss the role of traditional and new media in this event - in reporting it and also in some ways, being a part of the story by being a means in Cho’s mind to air his grievances and justify himself.

Remember the heroes

So I don’t want to end this post on Cho. I want to end it talking about a hero. Liviu Librescu was one of the professors in the room that day. He was 76 and a survivor of the Holocaust. He blocked the doorway with his body and bought precious moments for his student to make their escape. The Guardian reports “Messages were posted on the web praising the professor. “No act could be more selfless.” one poster wrote.” Let’s remember Professor Librescu and celebrate him. Let’s remember and celebrate the 32 people who died at Virginia Tech.

Social media and blogs are becoming acceptable communications platforms in the same way as websites - that’s what 89% of the respondents to the Euroblog 2007 Survey confirmed. The survey was published last month to investigate the use of blogs in professional communications. It was co-ordinated by the European Public Relation Education and Research Association (Euprera) and involved the Universities of Sunderland and Leipzig.

The key findings I’d like to highlight are:

• Readership of blogs has doubled since 2006

• Running of blogs has also doubled

• Blogs “offer three clearly marked opportunities: Organisations engage in
  environmental scanning, receive feedback from their audience and have the chance to
  create authentic, personal communicative relationships with their stakeholders,
  which in turn can lead to faster reaction time to issues in crisis.”

• Many PR professionals now regard blogs as part of their daily routine as acceptance and usage rises

The Edelman Trust Barometer 2007, a survey on who and what the public trust, found that “A person like me is the most trusted spokesperson across the European Union, North America, and Latin America. In Asia, it is second to physicians.” In this light, it makes sense that bloggers have become increasingly influential. The hallmark of blogs is that the authentic, personal voice of their authors, speaking directly to their audience, not as a powerful and distant authority figure but as your peer or friend.

This is revolutionising the way that messages are perceived and delivered and what it says to me is that the form and medium of the message is as important as the message itself.

Blogs and social media are identified as “disruptive communication innovation” in the Euroblog survey in that they disrupt the established order of communications. They break down barriers to communication by bypassing journalists and the informaton channels controlled by the powerful and those in authority eg TV, radio, newspapers, magazines. Anyone can create a blog and discuss the hot topics of the day. Anyone can make an audio programme and post it up as a podcast without needing to persuade BBC Radio 4 to broadcast it. Anyone can make a movie and put it on YouTube. And anyone from anywhere in the world can access that information. How unnerving is that for governments and those who traditionally have had control of the media!

I think that these two surveys taken together point to an opportunity for businesses, associations, professionals and organisations to actually get in touch with their clients and stakeholders in an authentic, meaningful way. Incorporting blogging or social media into your marketing strategy can strengthen your business or organisational objectives through constructive conversation with the people who matter and by delivering your message in a direct and transparent way. In my work with a client last week, we looked at how their blog could showcase the mission statement of their business - that mission statement would the foundation of every thing they talked about in their blog. It was as if a light went on for them - they realised that not only could they showcase their expertise around the core value of their mission statement in the blog, they could also re-invigorate their business strategy through engagement with wider networks than their current stakeholder circle.

The Euroblog survey also reveals that there are issues for PR and marketing professionals and businesses around the lack of highly-skilled personnel to work with them in developing and implementing blog and social media strategies. These strategies need to be given the same time and commitment as you would your traditional marketing strategy especially because they require transparency and authenticity. There have been some blogs that have been roundly ridiculed and criticised in the blogosphere for being condescending, false, even racist, and in some cases not really blogs at all.

The blogosphere is a whole new frontier that is exciting and full of opportunities but also can be fraught with difficulties for the unwary and dotted with pitfalls. To help you navigate through this landscape akin to the Wild West, I’ll be exploring over the next little while on ZenGuide some of the do’s and don’ts of blogging and social media and highlighting the good, the bad and yes, the sometimes ugly. If you have any particular queries you’d like me to explore, do add a comment or email me.

Photo: thanks to doctormacro.com