Not just for nerds:Using emergent technologies

to improve communication

Joanne JacobsProject Manager,

Australasian CRC for Interaction Design Seconded Lecturer from the Brisbane Graduate School of

Business, Queensland University of Technology

Scope of the Presentation

• Changes in consumer behaviour

– Fragmentation of media audiences

– Shift from consumption to interaction

– Tools not enough; social motivations

• The Rise of “Web 2.0”

• The value of blogging

Fragmenting media landscape

• More channels than ever before to receive content

• More audiences focused on their own ‘user-generated’ content than on professionally produced programming

• Consumers are demanding personalisation of information and are informed about content with which they engage

Technorati: Blog Growth

Source: Technorati, State of the Blogosphere.

MySpace versus Google (Visits)

Source: Hitwise, MySpace Moves Into #1 Position for all Internet Sites

YouTube, Flickr Reach

Source: Alexa, cited in Google, You Tube & Dark Side Of Online Video, Om Malik

Rise of ‘Web 2.0’

• Web 2.0 software and technologies arose as a means of solving a publishing and accessibility problem, whilst accommodating social communications

• Web 2.0 not technically different from Web 1.0, just delivering on the promise of the “markets are conversations” ideals of technology advocates (see The Cluetrain Manifesto)

Web 2.0 Definition

Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.

SOURCE: O’Reilly Radar, http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/10/web_20_compact_definition.html

Web 2.0 technologies

• Blogs

• Wiki

• ‘Mash-ups’

– a website or web application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service

• RSS

– Really Simple Syndication or RDF Site Summary; a web feed format for aggregating content drawn from websites, blogs and podcasts

Changes in consumer behaviour

• Web 2.0 has evolved, not been manufactured

• It represents the following changes:– Desire for negotiated meaning development

Eg: Reality programming and voting on results (user Agency)

– Desire for a continuing conversation – Interest in following citation trails– Desire for multiple media channel opportunities

(text, audio and video)

Shift from consumption to interaction

• Audiences for traditional media now fragmenting– Gen Y are spending less time in front of the television

and read less print media than ever before– In addition to subscription television services, and

‘professional’ games and web content, user-led content channels now highly popular

• Audiences now use content as an excuse to contact (Rushkoff, 2003)

What’s new about Web 2.0?

• Engaging stakeholders in decision making

• Allocating tasks based on skill sets and expertise rather than as a role in an employment environment

• Generative tools to denote ‘hot’ topics

• A culture of critical debate and engagement

– Produces a sense of trust in the publisher

• Evolving “correctness” of data

Who Cares?

• Media companies (News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch)

• Publishing industry• PR and advertising industries• Sub-cultural groups

(niche industries – the ‘Long Tail’)• Political marketers and lobby groups• Research organisations and educational

institutionsCommunicators MUST respond

What difference will it make?

• Increased customer engagement and intellectual investment in an idea (John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler, Doubleday)

• Transparency of business practice (Dallas Morning News)

• Provides an incentive for participation in digital networks (social motivation)

Tools are NOT enough

• Dominant sense among software providers and advocates that the tools will be a silver bullet for interaction needs among audiences

• Errr… No. Litany of examples of social software implementations that have ‘died’

• Research demonstrating social purposes are more dominant motivations than information and entertainment

Improving communication

• Blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies can permit conversations to evolve between an organisation and its stakeholders

• Conversations are more effective facilitators of business than common ‘information overload’ strategies

• Communication is not broadcasting; it’s not enough to get the message out. You have to be open to responses

Not just for nerds….

• Business blogging on the rise

• Other Web 2.0 technologies emerging as a means of categorising information and for knowledge management

• The Attention Economy is upon us! (Davenport & Beck 2001)

Any questions?

Joanne JacobsProject Manager, ACIDSeconded Lecturer from BGSBPh: 3337 7832 Mob: 0419 131 077Email: joanne@joannejacobs.netSkype ID: bgsbjj

(tell me who you are before adding me as a contact!)Blog: http://joannejacobs.netBook: Uses of Blogs, Available for order from Amazon