SXSW notes: What People Are Really Doing On The Web

This session at SXSW Interactive on Monday 13th March 2006 attracted an audience of over 200 to the main auditorium.

The big hitters of web stats and consumer / user analysis were there on stage, and there were a few nuggets amongst the factoids pumped out, but overall the session felt a little tame and the insights sparse. Guess that’s what happens when you parachute your stats and trend mavens into a conference of innovators  ;-)

PANEL:
Holland Hofma Brown (Harris International)
Dr Michelle Madansky (Yahoo! Inc)
Max Kalehoff (Nielsen Buzz Metrics – also own Blogpulse)
CHAIR: Joel Greenberg (GSD&M)

Establishing the types of market research deployed, Holland Hofma Brown of Harris International cited asking people, and “lead user theory” (Professor Eric Von Hippel, MIT ‘Democratizing Innovation’) as the primary methodologies (eg. power bars; Camelback; RSS usage). The lead users are solving the problems so look at them.

Hofma Brown of Harris International polled over 2,300 respondents between 16/2/06 and 23/2/06. Over a third would rather email a friend than call them on the phone he revealed; 55% won’t buy a product without first checking prices and researching online. Still, we’re not sure we trust the internet.

Catching the blog bug

How do we use the internet to connect to others? 10% of respondents had posted to blogs (contrast with 60% of SXSW attendees who were posting to blogs). Who is reading blogs? 54%/46% men to women. Young males dominate blog readership.

How many blogs are they reading? 61% have cited 1-4 blogs in the last year. Why do people read blogs? For most part it’s a passive activity.

What kinds of blogs are people reading? Personal diaries top the charts with 45% (compared to the SXSW audience, 70% of whom read tech blogs). What makes for a good blog? The way a blog looks is less important than what the writer has to say. Who is writing? Men and women bloggers are now equal in that respect.

The connected populace: US vs UK

We’re using the internet to connect and stay in touch with others. So what aren’t consumers doing online, asked Michel Madansky. Yahoo! Get 2 terrabytes of data a day, she explained, citing the ‘Truly, Madly Deeply Engaged Global Youth, Media & Technologies‘ report (summitseries.yahoo.com – all studies are posted there).

Computer – US 86% UK – 92%

Mobile – US 72% – UK – 97 %

MP3 – US 28% – UK – 63%

Email – US 68 % – UK – 86% (at least once a day)

IM – US – 49% UK – 63%

Search – US – 45% UK – 66%

Blogging – US – 17% UK– 20%

Texting – US – 49% UK – 95%

Games – US – 49% UK – 68%

Photos – US – ?? – UK– 75%

Search, peer recommendation and beyond…

Music, sex, shopping, others are the top searches in order of user preference. Search terms are consistent over time, Madansky explained, with MySpace (number 2 term), Limewire and Facebook being the big new entries. Music is the biggest search area for teenagers. Madansky also noted upcoming new arrivals podcast (podcast.yahoo.com) and Yahoo Answers (social search).

Max Kalehoff explained that Nielsen Buzz Metrics help marketers by analysing consumer generated media. Underlying factors he highlighted – media fragmentation, the erosion of trust in traditional institutional information sources, and the rise of interactive media, democratized publishing and social networks.

Consumer generated media upends marketing’s worldview

We’re moving into a phase of consumer generated multimedia – blogs, vlogs, podcasts, etc. Peer recommendation and consumer generated multimedia are by far the biggest referral source. Consumers (92%) now say they prefer or rely on word of mouth, they trust fellow buyers before they do other marketers.

The culture of information seekers and speakers, for example IAMs on Google two days ago – the third and fourth results were serious consumer critiques of IAMs. A new washing machine manufacturer looked at consumer evangelists. Surprisingly, 49% were men when 99% of their marketing had been aimed at women. Marketing programs that amplify word of mouth buzz can also be incorporated into sponsorships and event demos, he added.

Mistrust of UGC in the educational sphere

Kalehoff said we could look up his blog at maxkalehoff.com and the Nielsen SXSW 2006 surveys at (http://go.hpolsurveys.com/sxsw). He also noted the issue of lack of trust in consumer generated media (CGM) as regards to academia and how to counteract it. Edelman PR did a trust barometer study [PDF].

Michelle Madansky was asked how Yahoo use their research in the innovation process. She replied that they have a piece of software called ‘The Idea Factory’ that anyone in the company can input to – new ideas to improve current products. They have also used research to develop the Yahoo Podcast beta.

Kalehoff observed that the food industry is currently being more impacted than any other by consumer power and CGM.

Trends to look out for

What’s the difference between a snapshot and a trend another audience member asked. Brown of Harris International responded that we should watch what the 12-21 year olds are doing.

What’s coming next trend-wise as indicated by the panel’s data another delegate asked. Buzz Metrics said we’re reaching a tipping point from an era where most content was produced by corporates to a point where the majority is produced by ourselves. As search spreads and becomes more advanced this will only increase, so it’s more of a discovery process. Proliferation of multimedia is another trend.

Madansky replied that “my media” is the next big thing as consumers are in control with TIVO etc. Cellphones are becoming more important she continued, with media moving across every device. The social web was an important trend, as the sterility of being served up with yet more questions becomes more acute, and Yahoo Answers was one of the answers to this, she reckoned.

Kalehoff noted that one of the emerging trends in the Web 2.0 space was that there are so many companies doing each thing that a lot of them won’t be around in 5 years.

All SXSW Interactive 2006 panels:
http://2006.sxsw.com/interactive/programming/panels/

My other SXSW Interactive 2006 session write ups:

SXSW notes: What’s In A Title?

SXSW notes:  Beyond Folksonomies – Knitting Tag Clouds For Grandma

SXSW notes: Book Digitisation & The Revenge Of The Librarians

SXSW notes: James Surowiecki on The Wisdom Of Crowds

SXSW notes: Running Your New Media Business

SXSW notes: The Perfect Pitch

SXSW Interactive back on the radar

After a chat at work about this and next year’s SXSW Interactive, I’m feeling inspired. But guilt at not blogging all my notes from the conference/festival has also resurfaced.

Not like it’s not out there already, but every report has its peculiar skew, paraphrasing quirks, deliberate omissions and oversights (to confirm if I’ve missed anything, check out the SXSW official podcasts).

So I’ve resolved (in my spare time) to write up all the sessions I never got round to doing back in the spring-summer period when I was completely overwhelmed with planning Content 2.0, the Beers & Innovation series and NMK’s broader programme of events, in addition to my editorial and web development duties.

If you missed them, the three sessions I did write up back then were:

Beyond Folksonomies: Knitting Tag Clouds For Grandma

Book Digitisation: Revenge Of The Librarians (more exciting than it sounds, but then some librarians are very cool these days)

James Surowiecki on The Wisdom Of Crowds

The forthcoming ones are equally juicy, but they also have a more business-like slant (with garnish of social media and visionary ranting for good measure). Which is a perfect fit for the evolving logic of the Beers & Innovation series.

They also relate equally to the ‘creative industries’ start-up enterprises and SMEs (I *so* hate that acronym, but hey) that dominate the UK web industry. And the creative industries being another area B&I will soon be tackling – in fact it was going to be announced last week (sorry for the delay on that).

So, session write-ups coming soon on:

Running Your New Media Business

The Perfect Pitch – How To Attract Money To Your Digitally Convergent Business

What People Are Really Doing On the Web

Commons-Based Business Models

Danah Boyd’s Current TV SXSW Interview

Consumer Is The Producer: DIY Media

Bruce Sterling Presentation: The State Of the World

Two other great sessions I went to – the Craig Numark keynote and Jason Kottke & Heather Armstrong in interview – I didn’t take notes on, which was nice as I could just relax and take it in. No need to worry though, as 60% of delegates were blogging the conference, so you can look them up on Technorati.

Are you saving-up for your airfare to Austin in March 2007? No chance of affording it or getting the boss to shell out? Get your mates or family to group together and buy you a ticket for Crimbo (£225 for 4 days of round-the-clock goodness – bargainous). Then take a loan out to cover your hotel and airfare, or sell something / anything. That’s my thought for today 

Podcast search alert

I’m looking for someone to podcast Beers & Innovation next Thursday.

This time I’m hopeful someone will offer to help (no luck last time). Which is out of character for me, but I’m thinking, maybe this time there is more grounds for optimism…?

The fact that the ‘RSS Frontiers‘ event is sold out with 15 people on the waiting list could have a bearing on my state of mind. Doesn’t mean that effect is a useful one though

If you want to do the honors in return you’ll get free entry, free beers and of course the chance to hear from some very interesting players in the web feeds and widget space, and be able to join in on the discussion yourself.

We can’t pay, but in additon to the above we’ll give you due credit all-round including when the file is posted on the NMK Podcast in iTunes.

Other readers – you can help too! Free free to spread the word and get potential podcasters to drop me a line as soon as poss on deirdre (dot) molloy (at) nmk.co.uk

Mothership downtime & Content 2.0 podcast update

Okay, it’s not really the mothership technically speaking, but the NMK website will be taking a breather this weekend, starting anytime now.

This is simply due to need for the University Of Westminster to power down all their servers (including ours) this weekend for essential maintenance.

So what? Well you may ask. For starters there’s a lot of links on this blog to the NMK site that will be temporarily dead. Including that which takes you to the booking page for Beers & Innovation 4: RSS Frontiers on 14th September.

iTunes back in the frame (ish)

Secondly, podcast junkies who still haven’t downloaded the Content 2.0 podcasts might be sweating it a bit when they find an Error 404. Yikes! Can’t have that can we. So here’s the links direct to the Archive.org, Feedburner and iTunes pages.

The iTunes situ has been resolved as much as it can be, although you may only see the four most recent files (out of a conference total of eight) on iTunes. Don’t ask me – ask iTunes why they do this. I know – it’s pointless asking them anything.

All things going to plan, the NMK site will be back up sometime on Monday 17th July.

Content 2.0 podcasts go live

I love being the bearer of good tidings, so here goes – the podcasts of all the sessions at Content 2.0 are now available to download.

The conference, on 6th June, saw leading experts and practitioners in the digital space come together with an informed audience for a day of talks and discussion on some key issues and developments facing the content industries.

Social networks, user-generated content and ownership of digital identity, blogging and control, Marketing 2.0, brands and trust, social search and recommendation, folksonomy and tagging, and the habits and attitudes of digital natives were all explored and debated with the audience. Listen at your leisure here.

Sessions podcasted by Lloyd Davis and m3m for NMK at Content 2.0 were:

KEYNOTE: Mesh Up: Connecting Content to People
Marc Canter – CEO, Broadband Mechanics

SCENESETTER: Goodbye New Media – Hello Social Media
Adriana Cronin-Lukas – Director, The Big Blog Company

FORUM: Marketing 2.0 = Content 2.0?
Featuring James Cherkoff of Collaborate Marketing, Hugh MacLeod of GapingVoid, and Jamie Kantrowitz of Myspace, chaired by Michael Bayler of The Rights Marketing Company.

DEBATE: Can Brands be Trusted?
Alan Moore – CEO, SMLXL and Shel Israel – author, Naked Conversations

KEYNOTE: The Changing Face Of Web Search
Bradley Horowitz – Vice President of Product Strategy, Yahoo! (blog)

SCENESETTER: Folksonomies: What Are They Good For?
Matt Locke – Head of Innovation, BBC New Media

FORUM: Search & Enjoy! The Power of Search and Recommendation
Featuring Suranga Chandratillake of Blinkx, Alex Barnett of MSDN, Microsoft, and Matthew Ogle of Last fm, chaired by Mike Grehan of Marketsmart Interactive

YOUNG PEOPLE & MEDIA: Invisible Culture
Featuring Dot and Rory, chaired by William Higham of The Next Big Thing (blog)

If you don’t subscribe to any podcast subscription service, all the direct links are here. For those who do, you’ll find the Feeburner subscription/reader tools in the same place.

iTunes glitchiness

The iTunes system has proven harder to crack. I wanted to blog this a few days ago when the links first went up, hoping the iTune glitches would be resolved, but no such luck! For more info, see this announcement on the iTunes forum.

For more details on the conference schedule and speakers – and session-by-session blogged coverage – visit the Content 2.0 website.

I’ll post again when (and if) the iTunes karma improves. In the meantime – happy listening.

[NB: Cross-posted on the Content 2.0 blog]

Content 2.0 – pre and aftershock

So it's the season of smothering heat, summer storms and, in these specific parts, blogging lite. Mea culpa.

The main reason I haven't been posting is the effort and concentration required in the final run up to NMK's 6th June conference Content 2.0 which I was waist-deep in as both a steering committee member, organiser, web manager/editor and marketer. All the effort paid off thankfully and it went really well.

If you missed the conference and want to see in-depth coverage check out the torrent of posts from our Content 2.0 official blogger for the day Mike Butcher.

Content 2.0 and then some…

Other folks who blogged it include Ben Metcalfe, Sam Sethi, Library2.0, AdLiterate, Diarmuid Russell, Darren Shaw and several others, not to mention speakers such as Marc Canter, Shel Israel, Alan Moore (get well!) and Alex Barnett (phototastic!) and PaidContent's super-stylish reporter Jemima Kiss. Conference panelist James Cherkoff wrote a succinct piece on the rise of blogging for the BBC in advance.

Plus the whole thing was filmed (coming soon) – and a taster interview with Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz posted already - by David Dunkley Gyimah of award-winning video-journalism site veiwmagazine.tv (disclosure: he's also an employee of my employer Westminster University, teaching on their International Journalism postgrad MA).

We were also joined in the evening by – among others – Umair Haque of BubbleGeneration and Fergus Burns of Nooked (all the way from County Sligo, Ireland!)

All in all it amounts a good expansion of the debates and discussions of the day. Massive thanks goes to everyone who has taken (or will take) the time to share their thoughts. That's why we did it after all, to improve the conversation, as ace impassioned panelist Hugh MacLeod said on the day!

Content 2.0 podcasts & time out

(BTW, the conference podcasts will be available later this week! You can subscribe to the podcast feed here. They'll also be on iTunes and elsewhere, thanks to Lloyd Davis and Fergus Geraghty.)

The other reason for my absence? Exhaustion. I've been running on adrenaline and little else since at least March, working weekends and late nights, etc. The decision to take a break was for my own good – which is a problematic decision to take when you're blogging for a community but makes sense in the long term.

Signs of life & smokalicious goodness

Like myself, Mike Butcher has also been blogging lite of late over at mbites.com, but I was both cheered and excited to hear the other day – over an orange juice in Cafe Rio – that in a few weeks he intends to "blog till my eyes bleed". He does have a way with words does Mike. Could it be connected with his planned visit to Los Angeles?

Checked the ever-busy events page at JigsawUK today and was also reminded it's the summer of Geek BBQs – or Web 2.0 BBQs – with the next BBQ coming up in Wimbeldon this Friday. You just can't keep these global Londoners down