Monday, August 13, 2007

Intellagirl's Web 2.0 Event

I’m sorry this has taken so long to post. I had a full weekend and really needed to edit my notes. It was hard to take good notes and run the event at our location.

On Friday, August 10th, Sarah "Intellagirl" Robbins gave a presentation on Web 2.0 and business secrets. We streamed it into the CHSS Amphitheater and the event was announced in a few groups and lists.

Most of you either know Sarah or know her work/of her. For those who don't, she is smart, funny, and a leading authority on Web 2.0 and emerging technologies.

This is the second time I've seen this presentation and learned as much this time as last. Following are my notes, comments, thoughts, etc.. If they seem disjointed, please forgive - I was trying to be attendee and viewing site organizer at the same time.

One thing that is excellent about all of these networked based technologies is that the information is in one place, so there is no need to worry about what computer it is on. If it's up on the network, it is on any computer you are on - as long as the computer has Internet access.

Some of the following came from some of the slides being used. A link to those slides is up somewhere and I encourage someone who knows where to post it in a comment. (I don't have it handy as I write this)

Some of the online applications she talked about:
• You Tube – produces over 3250 hours of content every day, which is equal to 135 always-on TVs. 91% of that content is new.
• Flickr
• Twitter (I added an entry to my Twitter account ' /sorry-afk ' as she was talking about this.
• Attendr (my note - I wrote to Attendr at their main email address four separate times over a 30 day period and never even got a response, so the customer service and support, for me, is suspect – and it was a basic question, too.)
• Second Life
• 71 Million blogs
• 60 billion emails each day!!!
• Wikipedia – 18 millions English articles, 800 million words, and nobody is getting paid to write a word of it.
• Wiki – a web page anybody can edit. [side note: Someone at our location said they thought Wiki meant "What I Know Is…" So then someone went to Wiki and looked up the word and gave the information to everyone (its a Hawaiian word). I noted that we are actually exemplifying what it is Sarah is talking about.]

During the break there was good conversation. People in-world were doing the same thing people on-site were doing, talking to each other, finding out about each other, talking about what was said so far, etc.

When Sarah came back on she started talking about Web 2.0 application we can start using right now:
• Google GMail
• RSS Reader (like Google Reader) – pull technology
• Del.icio.us
• Firefox – although not an actual Web 2.0 technology, Firefox is, in Sarah’s opinion, and in mine, one of the best (if not the best) browser currently available, especially given all of the plug-in and other extras that are available for it that tie to Web 2.0 apps.
• Facebook
Someone in the audience at our location brought up “viral marketing”, and my only question was, why is it called that – who wants a virus?
• Mologogo
• SecondLife

After the presentation ended I stayed around until everyone had left. The last person to leave was Tyrr Leavitt. We had a great conversation, both on and of topic, but the one thing she said that stuck with me is that she avoids use of Zero Ware. I had never heard that, so I asked, and she explained that Zero Ware is an application that ends in a zero – such as WidgetWear 2.0, or Gadget 1.0 – always better to go with a version beyond X.0

As I see it, the only way this people communication network will work is if people are listening. What that means is that we need to add to those who are already listening and of those listening we need more people speaking. This means we can all do our own little bit by being more active in the process.

What Web 2.0 applications are you using? Why do they work for you? What doesn’t work for you? What is missing that you’d like to see? Are these making us more productive or simply more glued to our computer, mobile device, etc..?

1 comment:

Intellagirl said...

AJ: Thanks for covering my talk in this way. I'm so glad you enjoyed it and learned something from it.
In response to your questions, for me the holy grail of 2.0 is a page where i can truly mashup everything I use on a dialy basis in a really easy way. Just drag my email account in, my calendar, my RSS, some photos, etc with no programming, no prolems with applications interfacing with each other. Basicaly combining the 10 tabs i keep open all day onto one page I can access from everywhere.