Pamela Lund | Massively Networked

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SXSW 2010: We are all bees

We’re all bees now, apparently. Hive mind may no longer be a metaphor but a gadget-mediated reality when we all peer into Foursquare apps to see which locations are trending and who is setting the trend so we can be sure to fly off to where the (usually) King Bee is hanging out. When we arrive, we’ll check in and report to the others our location – signaling we’re in the know by Tweet name-dropping “w/ @briansolis @scobelizer”. Congratulations – you’ve unlocked your Super Swarm badge at The Speakeasy. Foursquare debuted at last year’s SXSW capturing interest among those who saw the potential of a location-based service (LBS), especially given the mass adoption of the iPhone with its geolocation features. Gowalla followed shortly thereafter, offering a similar ability to check in your location, share tips and get stuff: points for

SXSW Interactive 2010 is on…

Reg crowds seem lighter at SXSW Interactive 2010 than last year. At the Laughing Squid party last night I overheard a lot of folks decided to come to Austin for the schmoozing, but not register for the event. Not surprising given the 2009 economy and that Southby is really about schmoozing and parties anyway. I’ll be blogging throughout the event, so keep an eye here for panel recaps, insights and general interactive buzz. Update: Must have been that everyone arrived on Saturday because things got a lot busier. An organizer said 2010 is up about 30% in registrations compared to last year.

DIY civil works for the 21st century

Residents of Kauai heard news that flood damage in much-touristed Polihale State Park would take the cash-strapped state two years and US$4 million to remedy, likely forcing several businesses to shut down. Eight days later the repairs were complete. For (almost) free. Did the state realize the potential impact on local business, get really clever about sourcing supplies and kick the project into high gear? No. Residents affected by damage volunteered their time and donated supplies to get ‘er done. Welcome to DIY civil works in action. Horatio Alger bootstrapping, lack of stigma attached to failure and openness to change provide much of the scaffolding for the mythos that shapes attitudes in the United States – so perhaps it’s no surprise that Hawaii residents felt empowered to ignore the state’s answer and find a way to fix the park themselves.

5 Trends shaping the emerging interactive marketplace

The interactive marketplace is no doubt beginning its next round up the spiral of change. Here are 5 trends that very likely could create a game-changing environment for business – and some that are already starting to do so. 1. The internet leaving the internet Mobile devices (smartphones, wearable tech), programmable tags (QR, RFID), information embedded within physical environments (visual information overlays, projected displays, smart paper) image recognition (visual search, image-driven applications) and gestural user interfaces are examples of technologies that allow us to access the Web unimpeded by bulky machinery. Potential impact: The trend toward pervasive and transparent access will take expectations about instantaneous access to time-and-situation-relevant information to a whole new level. Successful companies will do more than simply maintain an up-to-date website and participate in social media. Timeline: Fast. If true: Businesses that can find innovative ways

Thought Bubbles: No safe place on earth? – go sailing!; Outsource your prayers; Predicting innovation

Thought Bubbles shares bits of news, ideas, links and random scribblings. Feel free to email me your own. No safe place on earth? – go sailing!: Open sailing project is “designing for the apocalypse” – a quote presumably with tongue stuck somewhat in cheek. Seriously, though, project participants are envisioning an international sea station with labs working on cool stuff like an “energy animal” that can provide renewable solar, wind or wave energy depending on the weather and “instinctive architecture” for a ship design that adapts to extreme conditions. Outsource your prayers: Okay, commodification of absolutely everything is now complete. But does god listen to bots? Predicting innovation: Map of science project data mines what researchers are really spending time looking at (opposed to what they like to report they’re reading) and uses data visualization to map the result. Can

Companies: Get ready to get psychic

Marketing as we know it may go away in the not too distant future. Ten years ago, businesses told consumers what they wanted them to know about their product. Five years ago, most businesses caught on to the fact the internet made marketing a two-way conversation. Today, online marketing is becoming more of a one-way conversation again – not from companies to consumers, but in the other direction. Companies – get ready to develop your psychic powers. When consumers broadcast what they want, and come to expect that to be delivered to their doorsteps, in what sense would businesses still be marketing their products? Businesses that succeed in the emerging environment will de-emphasize the (what sometimes can seem vaguely contrived) “two-way conversation” meant to build a personal relationship between themselves and their customers. The successful ones will develop their “psychic

The changing role of media from communication agent to one of transforming experience

Are devices and technology that augment and modify reality – wearable tech, neural implants, biochemical modifications, robotics, among others – training wheels that will spring us (some of us, anyway) beyond a dualistic, materialist view of the world? Maybe. If you’ve ever lost yourself in a film or projected yourself so fully into your character in Second Life or World of Warcraft that you’ve temporarily forgotten where you were, think of how much more compellingly real that experience becomes as it pervades your awareness of everyday life and the objects within it. And consider how having the power to craft the world you are perceiving and virtually shape it at will would make your perception of self and object more fluid. See the Life 2.0 video at the end of the earlier lucid dreaming on demand post for one scenario

Thought for the day: Investing your social media currency in derivatives?

My friend Risa forwarded me the “Social Media Marketing Madness” Hubspot cartoon on the left. “I’m a marketer,” the first cell says. “I blog about marketing,” says the next. “I have a podcast about marketing bloggers,” “I tweet about podcasters that talk about marketing bloggers,” and finally “I have a Facebook group for Twitter users that tweet about podcasters that talk about marketing bloggers.” Might be funnier if it weren’t so true that the currency of social media is heavily invested in derivatives. And we all know how well the investment in derivatives is working out on the economic stage right now. I’m just sayin’.

Lucid dreaming on demand, anyone?

One more recap from SXSW 2009 before I head back to San Francisco. Thor Muller (Get Satisfaction, Inc.) demonstrated a fictitious product called “ThinkTwice” during his presentation to get the audience thinking about the longer-term impact of what may be relatively near-term developments in human augmentation. His fictitious use case is a thought-provoking adjunct to my post on What happens when marketing gets truly interactive? where I noted the marketplace is beginning to blur the lines between personal and commercial. Muller’s hypothetical product blurs the lines between internal and external as well. Welcome to lucid dreaming on demand, people. Question is, who will provide the stuff your dreams are made of? humMuller describes ThinkTwice as made up of a neural implant (a subcutaneous patch maybe) that uses the central nervous system as its network, with a display component surgically implanted

Social media in a world of massive connectivity

Social media is nothing new. Social commentator and sci-fi author Bruce “global microbrand”* Sterling noted in his talk this afternoon at SXSW that in the early 20th century H.P. Lovecraft, the writer of odd sci-fi and horror, set up an amateur author network of what might now be analogous to a blogger network. In addition to his sci-fi writing, Lovecraft cultivated a network of devoted followers who often relied on him for life advice. Lovecraft was perhaps an influencer of his time. The difference now, of course, is the massive connectivity enabled by technology. This is a fact that Sterling partially laments for ushering in an era where he’s speaking to “the people formerly known as the audience” as 100s of attendees twitter away while he talks. He partially sees it as beneficial as well – by opening channels of

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