The One Crucial Idea…
Down at SXSW they are chatting about (MP3) the Wisdom of Crowds – a book I really enjoyed. There is a key point in the book that gets drawn out over at Bokardo – it’s as much about those who draw out the wisdom of the crowd as it is about the crowds wisdom. Take Google and their Pagerank algorithm as an example.
This notion has special significance for communicators. In a Web 2.0 world you should be monitoring and measuring those that are drawing out the dialogue as much as you and the media. For instance, what appears on Google News or Digg.
Next generation communications measurement systems will give you insight into – and weight accordingly – the “aggregators” of content. They will also start to give consideration to the conversations taking place on those sites. Take Digg as an example. Here it isn’t just about aggregation, it is about the communities assigned weighting of that content and the associated commentary.
The new dimension in communications measurement will be relevance. Not as measured by abstract algorithms or as determined by communicators. But as measured by the wisdom of the crowd.
Good thinking on blog policies…
Trevor Cook has some good comments from an Aussie lawyer at Baker & MacKenzie on developing a blog policy. He also points to a piece in one of the big rags in Australia. Thanks Trevor!
Predicting the Oscars Using Search…
SLI used search to make some predictions as to the winners of this years Oscars. Interesting ideaand nice little PR stunt…
- Best Picture – “Brokeback Mountain”
- Best Director – Paul Haggis, “Crash”
- Best Actor – Terence Howard, “Hustle & Flow”
- Best Actress – Reese Witherspoon, “Walk the Line”
Here is a little about the “magic” they used to get there:
We found that rather than looking at the total number of searches for each nominee, it was necessary to look at how the search traffic had increased. This stopped George Clooney from automatically winning the best director – there are more searches for him than any of the other directors. This approach had it’s own flaws – but I don’t think it really matters. I’m looking forward to seeing how our predictions pan out.
Feed Overload
How to handle all those feeds? Rubel suggests deleting them all when it becomes too much and starting again. Even Scoble’s. What you miss most is what you’ll hunt out and reload.
While this is an interesting idea (and mirrors some of the new thinking in time management – don’t archive, just delete what you don’t need), I actually value my feeds more than that. All of them. Some were hard to find. Some I share by exchanging files with freinds and colleagues. Others I just enjoy. My approach is to keep them filed. I have a must read folder and then the rest are categorized by my bizzare collection of interests. I only open the folders and look at the feeds when I have time or my interest is sparked. I’m also a fan of Dave Winer’s River of News philosophy.
To do this I’m using NetNewsWire on my Mac and NewzCrawler on my PC. I also use FireFox (who BTW released a really anoying upgrade then other day – it wipes your themes and other extensions) – there I have a folder nestled in my toolbar with 20 of the feeds I follow most. I can then do a quick scan without opening any windows. I’ve yet to sort out the mobile thing – my damn Balckberry is already intrusive enough.
So, all of this enables me to avoid the extreme measure of deleting them at the point of maximum frustration. It’s interesting that I have more tools for reading feeds than I do for reading email. It would be easier if Exchange/Outlook emails were just feeds.
The Honestsphere…
Two posts really hit me over the past two days as reflecting the honesty of much of the blogosphere. I doubt you’ll come across many posts like Dan’s on the Bayosphere on many company sites. This, along with the posts over at Meebo on fundraising are must -reads for any entrepreneur. As Dyson says, “only make new mistakes” – there are lots we can learn from these posts….
