SocComm: The State of Social Networking Now! And In Your Facebook
Yesterday I attended Jeff Pulver’s SocComm in New York City. I totally enjoyed it.
Jeff was the brains behind VON (Voice over the Net) and much of the early VoIP thinking, solutions and thought leadership. I have known him many years, consider him a good friend, and admire many things about him but especially his vision events and taste in music.
What I liked most about this event was the sense of possibility that each speaker or panel brought to the audience and the resultant belief that there’s a revolution in social communications right around the corner. It was not one of these congratulatory, back-slapping networking events that focused on what’s been done. That is stale. It was more like an early InternetWorld or LinuxWorld show with so many business opportunities and technologies yet to be tried, implemented and succeeding. As Jeff put it, “There was a lot of positive, driven energy in the room.”
Some of the highlights from among the speakers and panelists include:
- Jeff’s comments during his opening remarks calling for “the need to be vulnerable in social media” (read more here.)
- David Kirkpatrick’s, writing a book on Facebook, estimates that Facebook has more than 175 million users.
- Fred Wilson’s views on Truth in the age of social communications (read more here.) See his musical tastes on www.fredwilson.fm.
- Jeff Jarvis induced a highly interactive session with the audience on “What would a Google Restaurant Look Like?” Jeff has published What Would Google Do? – his cut on today’s finest business thinking.
Jeff’s “crowd sourcing” exercise brought out many creative ideas but there’s an underlying fallacious assumption: Google is God’s gift to business culture and models. I think its applicability to businesses outside of search based advertising is limited and do not think that Google functions well as a business template; it has been wildly successful in just one field and it does not have a long track record.
- Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library ranted that “The gatekeepers are dead. Fuck the gatekeepers.” Furthermore, Gary continued, the Fox Television Network will be dead in 10 years; so too the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. (The death sentence of the New York Times, I’m happy to say, caused many attendees and speakers to express regret but at the same time acknowledge the possibility that it could occur.)
- Shelly Palmer, Emmy Awards Show producer and prolific TV jingle creator, countered Gary’s rants that the death of big corporate media is just wishful thinking and a greatly exaggerated fear. Those who outside want inside and getting inside is near impossible.
- And many more valuable sessions.
SocComm was great success: A tribute to Jeff’s social networking skills and personal network. I hope we can do something in Boston soon.
Tags: SocialCommunications