Web 2.0 and social networking literally draws a crowd.
During our Computerworld Live Tour breakfast on Feb. 20 at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto something of an attendance record was set for the number of IT professionals drawn to one of our morning technology discussions. A grand total of 109 folks came to hear the insights of Web Evangelist (yes, that’s his real title) Aaron Kim and Senior Management Consultant Kathryn Everest of IBM Canada as they discussed the mysteries of one of today’s most significant business IT trends – Web 2.0 and social networking. The topic was definitely a hot one.
Much of the conversation focused on where these technology concepts had a fit with business in general and what are the particular redeeming values. A lot was said and many examples of Web 2.0 applications and programs were provided.
Even more illustrations of social networking communities and properties were discussed. But at the end of the day, I suspect most people walked away with more questions than answers. These are difficult topics to address in a succinct and complete way. You can’t cover all the ground in a three-hour morning. And the deeper you dig into the what, how-to and why of Web 2.0 and social networking, the more you realize that there is way more than you might think that needs to be discussed and considered.
Most of our Live Tour discussion on this day focused on people issues rather than the processes and tools. Attendees heard that successful adoption is not simply building Web 2.0 applications and processes or in the leveraging of existing social networking tools and resources, but more importantly it’s in changing a working culture so that it both understands and more importantly willingly embraces and uses Web 2.0/social networking to achieve value for the business.
There’s no magic formula or universal approach to adopting Web 2.0, other than the general view that it’s probably best to start on something small, with an internal group. And the fact is that most businesses will probably initially fail before ultimately striking upon success.
Kim brought up the great example of online communal knowledge centre Wikipedia and how it was a failure for three years. Coincidentally, however, the same company building Wikipedia was also engaged in a secondary online encyclopedia project and the content created in that project was ultimately used to seed Wikipedia. That’s when things exploded and Wikipedia took off. The lesson learned here was that you often need to kick start – in this case with content – most Web 2.0/social networking projects. Simply building it doesn’t guarantee they’ll come and, in fact, they probably won’t.
There were lots of other great lessons and examples.
Kim succinctly pointed out why businesses should care about Web 2.0 and social networking. The most obvious and perhaps most important reason is simply that a businesses clients and employees are demanding it – particularly those from the younger (sub-30-year-old) age demographic. “By 2010, 40 per cent of the workforce will be [from a current age group that is 30-years-old and under],” Kim said. They grew up with computers and the Internet.
That’s reason enough for businesses to quickly embrace Web 2.0 and social networking, and figure these things out fast.

Here’s a link to the presentations given at this Live Tour session

The traffic in Barcelona is a dissonant symphony. A member of the Guardia Urbana is directing the traffic snarl caused by 50,000 descending on Placa Espanya for the Mobile World Congress, and drivers halted on Taragona despite a green light arguing in their favour are expressing their dissatisfaction with a united chorus of car horns, the most musical complaint I’ve heard since the Helsinki Complaints Choir.

(My YouTube search for “complaints choir” returns a list that suggests a number of other cities have followed Helsinki’s lead, including Birmingham, U.K., Singapore, St. Petersburg and Chicago. This clip combines the complaints of listers to CBC Radio’s As It Happens, apparently. I’ve not had time to listen to it, so don’t blame me if it’s crap and/or offensive. But I digress).

Yes, it’s Day 3, and conference fatigue is setting in, not just among the denizens of Barcelona whose patience we are trying with our incursion. (A likely lad in Parc Joan Miro asked, with a sneer, if I was Americano. “No, Canadiano,” I replied. “Canadese,” he corrected wearily, like he just didn´t have enough energy to hate a Canadian anymore, though he might make the effort for a Yank.)

No, you can also see it in the faces of some of the conference attendees. There are the terminally chipper types, of course, who keep a smile on their faces regardless of jet lag and sales rejection. (If you’re one of those types, stay upwind of me.) But the majority fall into categories like sleepy-eyed, but still happy to be here; grimly determined to carry on despite weariness and frustration; tired, depressed and just about ready to call it a conference; brutally hungover; or — and I swear I have seen many of these people – literally on the verge of tears. (I think they’re trying to find a washroom.)

I´m firmly in the first camp — my body clock never got straightened out, but Barcelona is an incredible city (¡Mi cora as Catalana!, or  something like that), and the excitement of the people here who aren’t weeping is catching. These people have drunk the kool-aid. There’s a firm belief that the future is wireless, wireless broadband to be specific, and that there’s a business model in it for everyone.

The catch is, of course, that in Canada, we lag developments in Europe by many months to many years. Nokia’s ovi, a developing platform for wireless social networking on the fly and “circular entertainment” — wherein we go out for a night on the town, I post a video clip, you add a soundtrack and that guy we pretend to be friends with but really gets on our nerves edits the whole thing together and we think, well, actually he’s pretty cool — is rolling out, application by application, in Europe over the next year or so. We don’t have the infrastructure for those applications, we still don’t have the realistic data rates (though they’re much better than a year ago).

 That said, generally, we get there, if a little after Europe and Asia. There’s a bit of chicken-and-egg: Who’ll supply the applications if there’s no demand? And how do we generate demand if we don’t have the applications?

There’s been a lot of green talk here this year, which seems less cynical and more credible in Europe, where things green tend to be taken more seriously than in North America. And a lot of talk about mobile broadband’s impact in developing countries, which will leapfrog a wired infrastructure to bring wireless voice and Internet to many of the millions (600 to 700 million in India alone) who have never heard a dial tone.

Exciting times … no wonder I’m worn out. Had an invitation to the Budda Bar for the evening — it’s Flamenco Night — but my feets is failin’ me. Adios, Catalunya. I’ll be back next year.

La Fira Barcelona, the site of the Mobile World Congress, sits expansively across Placa Espanya, an enormous traffic circle, from the old Barcelona Arena. It’s comprised of eight halls, with a T-shaped courtyard packed with vendor tents. It’s huge and old world. Organizers refer to the site as The Village. It figures it took me an hour circling the area to actually find it. (Apparently, you good give me a ticket to Union Station in downtown Toronto, park a small hamlet — let’s say, Calgary — across the street where the Royal York is now, and I’d still never find the thing. I have many qualities; an internal GPS is not one of my specs.)

Barcelona has an effective subway web that covers the whole city. It’s clean and efficient, well-policed and well-travelled. This does not change the fact that traffic at Placa Espanya during rush hour is something like that film footage of the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War — if there were helicopters, people would be hanging from the landing gear. Drivers, cyclists, scooter operators and pedestrians all do unconscionable things at the intersections, yet you never hear a siren. Either no one’s getting hurt, or they’re making do on their own.

I’m here for the above-mentioned World Mobile Conference, 55,000-strong with wireless movers and shakers. I’ve just sat through a session on ubiquity of the network, and its given me pause.

I have a loaner GSM phone for use over here. I have not succeeded one whit in using it. I don’t know what the network problem is, but it’s my mother’s birthday today and if I don’t call … well, come on, how long would you hear about it from your mom? The wireless access in my hotel room doesn’t work, so I’m ensconsed in the lobby to work — si, por favor, una cerveza mas — where was I?

The loaner’s because my own cell phone is CDMA, which essentially means use only in Canada. I am isolated, communications-wise, at the show — if I can’t get a PC at the packed-to-the-rafters media centre (where there are no wireline phones, but it IS a wireless conference), I’ve got a 10-minute subway ride back to the Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I, where the technology is so sophisticated it took me two days to figure out how to keep the lights on for more than 30 seconds at a time. (Hint: Leave your key card in the slot near the door; this apparently tells the system you’re in, whereas repeatedly flicking the light switches does not.) I could use the Wi-Fi (they call it whiffy here) at La Fira, I suppose, but that means lugging an eight-pound laptop back and forth across town, and frankly, a laptop bag and name tag pretty much certify you in a foreign city as shark bait.

Forgive me if I don’t feel the ubiquitous network — which isn’t just about access points and cell towers, but the whole wireless communications ecosystem — is imminent. But I’m loving Barcelona.

Happy Birthday, Mom. Sorry I couldn’t call.

Media companies like ours live and breathe all things Google.
Much of what we seek to accomplish online is focused on enhancing our profile through Google’s omnipotent search. Google sets the rules for how to rank most high and online media companies – including ours – work frantically to craft our prose in ways that move it up the ranking ladder of what Google says is most appealing to those who seek information. We’re resigned to the reality that Google has enormous clout and the ability to influence readers. It has become a vital engine for the distribution of online news and information.
It’s a disconcerting reality for journalists who – rightly or wrongly – believed their professional judgment determined the relevance of content to audiences. There’s a new reality on the Web. When it comes to online, although quality may still ultimately matter most, content must adhere to the search criteria of Google in order to gain the widest possible views. In many ways, Google controls the most significant part of mass distribution. In other words, you might have a great story to tell, but if you haven’t applied the SEO principles of Google, then there’s a good chance it might not be seen. That’s incredible mass media power.
And that’s the thing that worries me most about Microsoft and its $44 billion bid for Yahoo. Assuming it happens, there’s a strong potential of at the very least adding another such major player to this content distribution mix. Perhaps under Microsoft stewardship, Yahoo may eventually usurp Google. It’s not such a ridiculous notion if you reflect on IT history and the rise of Windows Internet Explorer and the demise of Netscape Navigator.
There can be little doubt about Microsoft’s next great venture. It is to “own” the distribution of all things online. That was confirmed to me late last year during a frank discussion with a Microsoft Canada official, right around the time of an announced advertising distribution deal with social-networking community Facebook.
“Content is king and distribution is King Kong,” the Canadian official told me during an interview. He further went on to say that Microsoft will in the future invest in where “technology makes a difference,” citing Web-based mail, social networking and search technology as “investment targets.”
Ironically, I was told by the official that Microsoft would like to be “the clear Number 2 in the market in terms of search,” and he admitted the company was in a battle with Yahoo for that position.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might suggest that Microsoft’s play is to control the distribution of online content. The more accurate reality is that Microsoft is not much interested in content, at least not from a creation standpoint, and instead sees dollars – lots of them.
It was clear in my discussion with the Microsoft official that the company is all too aware of the untapped potential of online advertising spend. It’s absolutely massive. The official admitted that such online services have the potential to be the company’s largest business segment in the future. Microsoft wants to drive the online engine for advertising but will also control how content gets categorized, popularized and ultimately viewed. Perhaps they will achieve a dominant position. That seems to be the Microsoft pattern and I wouldn’t bet against them.
Ironically, most IT media companies would list Microsoft among its largest advertisers and sources of revenue.
The tables are about to be turned.

The editorial staff of IT World Canada put our heads together and put our collective neck on the line with our forecast of what will affect the world of technology in 2008. Now it’s your turn.

In our Ahead of the Curve blog, we’re looking for your predictions for the industry for the next 12 months — what’s hot, what’s not, what’ll appear on the radar and what’ll fall off, who’s buying whom … Click here and join the debate.

We’re thrilled to have veteran IT educator Jason Eckert join our team on the Career Corner blog. Jason heads up the IT faculty at TriOS in Kitchener, Ont., and is the author of nearly a dozen books on IT, and his Web site boasts a truly dizzying array of certifications.

He’s helped me out with an upcoming Network World Canada feature on the evolution of the network administrator, and you can find a podcast of our interview here. Read the rest of this entry »