Lifecasting and Microblogging

1. Lifecasting and Microblogging Or… The Transformation of Conflict into Comfort Joanne Jacobs Client Director, Xenial Ltd, and Social Networking Consultant

2. Value proposition In this presentation I hope to communicate: • An understanding of lifecasting as a concept and how it may be useful in business and personal collaboration; • The necessity for context for communication and natural use of technologies as incentives for participation.

3. Scope of the presentation • Definitions • Evolution of social media • The emergence of lifecasting and microblogging • Natural use of technologies • Conflict transformation • What’s next for microblogging?

5. Where are we? • Definitions • Evolution of social media • The emergence of lifecasting and microblogging • Natural use of technologies • Conflict transformation • What’s next for microblogging?

6. Definitions Lifecasting: • The continual updating of one’s ideas, perspectives and activities through status updates to Facebook, FriendFeed, Twitter or some other social networking platform Microblogging: • The use of blogging tools for very small posts, typically of 140 characters or less, often for lifecasting purposes. Rather than considered articles of some duration, microblog entries are often consecutive posts on an idea of interest.

7. Other definitions • Web 2.0: Network as platform; continually updated platform • Web 3.0: Semantic web; artificial intelligence and/or human assisted responses to content enabling much more ‘human’ responses to queries and more logical connections and relationship generation

9. Where are we? • Definitions • Evolution of social media • The emergence of lifecasting and microblogging • Natural use of technologies • Conflict transformation • What’s next for microblogging?

10. Social Networking Growth • Still regarded as a minority pursuit online, but revenue growth from social networking sites is growing dramatically. • Social networking site memberships are growing in the order of 47% year on year, according to Nielsen Netratings.

11. Social Networking growth • 1 in 4 regular internet users visit social networking sites as at June 2008 (see Consumer Internet Barometer – TNS, Conference Board). • LinkedIn was fastest growing social network in April 2008 (according to ComScore, see MediaPost). • MySpace still market leader (58.7 million users), followed by Facebook (22.5 million users). (ComScore) • 26.5% growth in online ad spending expected in 2008 (ZenithOptimedia)

12. The top players

13. Social Networking Use • Social networking technologies ‘becoming a more important part of global media consumption for internet users than some traditional media channels’ (Universal McCann). • Deeper analysis articles plateauing and an observable increase in collaborative content development and ‘lifecasting’. • Need for widgets and quality editorial for sites to deliver loyalty… unless you are Facebook/MySpace/Bebo.

14. Membership crossover From: Compete.com

15. Technology journalism predictions • Unstructured information from blogs and wikis will proliferate, driving demand for solutions to extract and consolidate business information. • A large number of enterprise intranets will get social networking capabilities. • Collective intelligence platforms and enterprise decision management support applications will see significant early adoption this year. • Mobile devices, such as the iPhone and especially the BlackBerry, will see significant uptake for embedding workers into business processes and Web-based collaboration From: ZdNet, 3 January 2008

17. Where are we? • Definitions • Evolution of social media • The emergence of lifecasting and microblogging • Natural use of technologies • Conflict transformation • What’s next for microblogging?

18. Lifecasting • Why do it? • Because people want to be able to connect in real time and to share more of their lives • Because humans are better at answering questions than machines • More enjoyable/practical experience to engage with a ‘friend’ in small 140 character than in ongoing conversation • Possible to discover news, relevant information, ideas in a timely fashion, but not necessarily intrusively • Good for making connections with people who have something interesting to say

19. Examples Twitter (rendered in Twhirl in this case) Facebook status updates Twitter on a Blackberry

20. Where it’s useful • RSS-style feeds and discovery of new ideas and questions • EG: This festival of ideas, and #2Gether on Twitter. Back channels of conversations, questions and idea explorations in-session. Useful record of the event after its conclusion. • Summaries of ideas by hash code (ie: #2Gether), tag or person/user • See tools such as Summize, http://summize.com/ • Immediate reports on live events • EG: Annual reports, live situational/technical analysis.

21. Why did it emerge? • Increasing number of social networking tools, increasing sophistication of niche interest facilities • Less of a need for personally driven analysis, and more of an emphasis on collective wisdom aggregation • Less time available to commit to multiple platforms • Ease of use of the tools (‘Natural Use’ – see the ideas that follow)

23. Where are we? • Definitions • Evolution of social media • The emergence of lifecasting and microblogging • Natural use of technologies • Conflict transformation • What’s next for microblogging?

24. ‘Natural Use’ • Technologies often ‘bootstrapped’ to fit the ambitions of users/advocates. This is often counter-productive or at the very least, wasteful. • Natural use of technologies acknowledges ‘experience design’ for the content being communicated: • Representation and simulation (articulation) • Communication enablers (reception) • Logic design (navigation, support) • Feedback qualities (interaction) • Identity and relationships (participants)* *See Polson and Jacobs 2007

25. Virtual Reality v. Lifecasting (I) • Second Life often identified as the future of business, collaboration • Immersive, avatar driven environment • Registration and download of client necessary to run application • High learning curve on adoption • Memory intensive and requires strong processing power to run effectively • Predominantly social, not geared for information aggregation, but rather content spread by ‘island’ or area … so Second Life is fails in portability, geographical independence, time and processor efficiency, and ease of adoption/use.

26. Virtual Reality v. Lifecasting (II) • Lifecasting: • Can be reduced to feeds, which can be fed into a variety of social networking platforms • Can be updated in real time, regardless of physical location • Can be accessed through mobile and portable devices • Requires very little processing power to run • Requires very little time involvement to participate • Retains a record of conversations long after their actual occurrence … so Lifecasting is a more ‘natural use’ of common technologies

28. Where are we? • Definitions • Evolution of social media • The emergence of lifecasting and microblogging • Natural use of technologies • Conflict transformation • What’s next for microblogging?

29. Conflict Transformation • Used to be called ‘conflict resolution’, but now refers to the notion that conflict can be useful and is best ‘transformed’ (into actions) rather than ‘resolved’ (closed) • Microblogging is a useful means of transforming conflict because: • Electronic paper trail for negotiations • Allows ‘verbal’ or at least vernacular discussion in a manner not achieved through formal written channels • Can foster ongoing relationship development and immediate reporting on progress • Natural use of the technology in terms of responding to the needs of a specific community of users (in closed as well as open network posts)

31. Where are we? • Definitions • Evolution of social media • The emergence of lifecasting and microblogging • Natural use of technologies • Conflict transformation • What’s next for microblogging?

32. What’s next for microblogging? • Highly targeted user profiling and customer research based on status updates, a zeitgeist of current issues and post tags • Further growth in the mobile market and greater comfort amongst older users in specifically tagged post aggregation and news sources (semantic web in action) • Immersive environments and VR presence could be augmented by microblogging enhancements, • BUT this will only generate interest in the corporate market where barriers to participation in immersive worlds are broken down.

34. Any questions? Joanne Jacobs Client Director Xenial Ltd Office: 020 7434 7210 http://www.xenialmedia.com/ Social Networking Technologies Consultant Mob: 07948 318 298 Email: joanne@xenialmedia.com; joanne@joannejacobs.net

35. About Xenial Ltd • Xenial is a website production and digital media agency, responding to a growing demand for community oriented web products and services.  • Xenial specialises in social networking sites and applications, designing, developing and consulting on websites and web-delivered portals which thoroughly engage their users. • With the renowned investment firm Fleming Media as its parent company, Xenial has relationships with international and multinational partners and clients, and has a reputation for exceptional quality of production and support. • Xenial is located in the creative district of Soho in London and welcomes opportunities for creative partnerships on projects. • http://www.xenialmedia.com/