Find, connect, empower! Then what? The WHERE’S WALDO Social Media Essentials panel dives into the next step – discussing the value of key social influencers in actions sports, where they are on your social network, and how targeting these potential brand evangelists will have a positive influence on your social media network and ROI.

Tonight’s PLAN of Action at BlankSpaces

6:30p: Doors open. Relax, Mingle, Drink Wine & enjoy Appiteasers
7p-8p: Panel Discussion
8p-8:30p: Questions? Comments? Angry Mobbing?
8:30p-9p: Network, Socialize, Process Knowledge

Moderated By:

Denise Garciano
community.pacsun.com

Denise Garciano has led PacSun in discovering who is talking about their brand online, who their customers are, and how to genuinely reach out and engage with friends and fans. As their Social Media Manager, she has developed and established a Community for PacSun, and continues to put forth initiatives and strategies that provide a better experience both online and in stores.

Confirmed Panelists Include:

Jonathan Rosen
luckyny.com

Jon, i.e. The International Man of Advertising, developed his success at award-winning traditional agencies such at Leagas/London, Fallon/NY, Wieden/Amsterdam and Publicis MOJO/Sydney on global brands such as: Nike, Adidas, Diesel, Powerade, Gor-tex and Coke. He began directing & Lucky Viral Branded Content was born. Lucky is a hybrid – half agency/half production company that writes, directs and produces viral films and branded content.

Cameron Olthius
5ones.com

Cameron Olthuis is an Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur that owns several Internet Companies. His specialty combines social media with search engine marketing to build large media audiences on the web. He tries to work as little as possible and in his free time enjoys surfing, skiing, and adventure travel.

Scott Tilton
loopd.com

Scott grew up racing motocross, BMX and mountain bikes. In 2001, he co-founded SponsorHouse.com, the leading online sponsorship site for action sports. In 2007, he expanded the concept , becoming CEO and launching Loop’d Network, which now has a global audience of 500,000 action sports athletes and enthusiasts and a successful social media and eCommerce model embraced by 400 brands.

Emily Goligoski
Federatedmedia.net

Emily Goligoski is a Strategic Programs Manager with online publishing company Federated Media’s and writes about arts, culture and design innovation . After studying journalism at Northwestern University, she was as an interactive producer for the advertising agency Venables Bell & Partners and worked as a digital strategist for Ogilvy PR.

Jonathan Nafarrete
JonathanNafarrete.com

Jonathan Nafarrete is an emerging photographer and social media consultant. He specializes in fashion, reportage, and portrait photography. When he is not staring at Twitter or out shooting, he loves just being out on the road. He forms part of the Fiesta Movement, an innovative social media initiative in which 100 young trendsetters test drive and live with a European-spec Ford Fiesta for six months, traveling as agents and relating their experiences through social networks.

Greg Cargill
bigMETHOD.com

Prior to starting bigMETHOD in 2008, his professional career focused on developing awareness for celebrities, brands, and products through the internet & strategic partnerships. Beginning as an intern in Interscope Records New Media Department in 2000, Greg spent 8 years at the center of the new music industry – working up through the new media departments of IGA and Virgin/Immortal to become the New Media Director Suretone Records & finally Custard Records. His time spent was part of a living education in online consumer engagement and served as the foundation for Greg’s contribution in the creation of bigMETHOD.

Special Guest Tech Zulu

techzulu.com

TechZulu is about creating a community platform for technology and media companies that is focused on covering, discovering and connecting. They cover the best events, showcase talented individuals, and provide the content online; ultimately connecting everyone. TechZulu’s goal is to do their part to help the Community continue to thrive!

If 90% of all conversations about brands still take place offline, how do we know if we are making an impact? Please join the esteemed panel of Social Media Experts and Influencers to find out.

Mashable recently posted an excellent article by Maria Schneider called:  “How To Launch Your Own Indie Journalism Site” following five mainstream reporters as they reinvent themselves – and journalism – on the web. Key points included: 1) the elephant in the living room (that ad money earned on indie sites might taint the unassailable virtue of journalism as we once knew it) and, 2) the opportunity to write about what you care most about – finding that market niche you can call your own and becoming a stand-out in it.

At the Digital Hub Cincinnati (Non) Conference today, John Battelle, Chairman of Federated Media, delivered the keynote speech: “We’re All Media Companies Now: How To Thrive In The Conversation Economy.” Main point I took away? That growth in digital media will be in the conversation. It’s about language – the essence of communication. Battelle took us back to our Fortran roots and DOS and brought us up to new voice command Google search capabilities. Digital media is about good, well researched and written content – but it’s success also depends on community engagement and identifying leaders and change makers and engaging them in the conversation. In a way, it’s not unlike the authentic learning educators insist is essential in our schools: where rote memorization is replaced with hands-on learning. In this case, static reading of news is replaced by interaction and engagement about the news. Interesting.

Everyone knows the print media is in a world of hurt. The more difficult question is this: What do publishers do about it?

Technology publishing giant IDG just may have come up with one killer idea. And no, the answer does not involve scantily clad women or slide shows touting the best nude beaches.

For IDG, the publishers of hundreds of magazines such as PC World and Macworld, the answer was to go against one of the industry’s most sacred notions and create its own online advertising network–with a major twist. Instead of only selling ads for its own properties, IDG would take advantage of the media’s fragmentation and the shift to online advertising by selling ads for other new media properties. In addition, the network also helps IDG Web sites to grow their audience by syndicating their content across the Web to non-IDG properties. (BusinessWeek, for example, syndicates IDG content on its Web site.)

It’s a bold strategy that seems to be paying off. Peter Longo, CEO of IDG Syndication and Networks, says that its network is currently serving ads to a combined total 75 million unique monthly readers, up from 20 million 18 months ago when it launched the group. Currently, IDG works with about 200 Web sites, including GigaOm, Slashgear, and Xconomy.com. All told, those sites serve up nearly 750 million ad impressions per month. Revenue is forecast to grow 100% this year, says Longo. 20 syndication partners have signed on to the program as well.

Check out the rest of the post on BusinessWeek’s TechBeat.

Desde el inicio de CommunitiesDNA, hemos dejado a un lado el trabajo con publicidad, no solo para nosotros, sino como recomendacion para nuestros clientes.  La mayoria de proyectos, si es que todos, han sido tan especializados y focalizados en audiencias clave, que usar publicidad seria un gasto tan innecesario, que pareciera ridiculo presupuestar.  Por lo que siempre hemos usado Word of Mouth para los proyectos de clientes.

Sin embargo, y respetando plenamente el punto de vista de muchos profesionales de la Industria de la Publicidad, es interesante seguir el cuestionamiento que ya desde hace annios se le ha venido haciendo a la Publicidad.  Desde el nivel tan pobre de ROI que una campana publicitaria devuelve; hasta que la mayoria de nosotros no podemos mencionar los ultimos 10 banners que vimos en sitios web que visitamos (haz la prueba y veras); y muchas otras razones.

Y siguiendo con la tradicion estadounidense de cuestionar algo del dominio o gusto popular, al nivel de afirmar que esta “muerto”, encontramos que Garage Technology Ventures, la compania de inversiones de Guy Kawasaki, organizo recientemente un evento llamado “Revenue Bootcamp”.  El tema central de un panel fue: “Is the advertising model dead?” Moderado por Bill Reichert, de Garage; junto con los siguientes conferencistas:

We make it harder than it needs to be to throw a creative shindig outside the big cities. Movie theatres, art museums and show stages are all used in plenty of metros. Earlier this week, the triple-tiered Hudson Theatre allowed us to choose how center stage we wanted to be while listening to speakers at the Conversational Marketing Summit in New York City.

Options like the Hudson are alternative venues that create a relaxing space to take in a day of intense speaker presentations. The event included plush red seats, a few signs up front, a multi-media screen and a blast of indie music thrown in for good measure. Nothing fancy, yet effective. Federated Media, the host, did a nice job mixing up the format with a splash of multi-panelist discussions, interviews and individual presenters. They speakers weren’t all fabulous, but the overall style and business variety – corporate, start-up, investors, and agencies – worked. And a few high-powered video ad campaigns from the likes of P&G and Intel added a little spice.

As the definition of an event space changes, there’s also a new definition of “audience participation.” Gone are the days when booting up your laptop during a presentation is taboo, an insult.  Granted, it was a social media crowd, but this event looked like a rock concert, except the “lighters” were blackberrys, netbooks, laptops and iPhones. (Lynyrd Skynyrd’s famous tune even surfaced in one brand lesson when Marc Ruxin of McCann Worldgroup commented, “If everyone could have their own Freebird,” flashing a picture of the virtual Zippo lighter in full flame on the iPhone.)

Local venues need to be flexible and encourage new ways of using their space, especially if it attracts revenue, visibility and casts a creative light on future potential opportunities. The ability to accommodate technology requirements like videotaping, music and mics is basic stuff. We need to think outside the box seats. It’s valuable to offer a change of pace and not confine attendees to a stark conference room or corporate hotel. Event managers should feel inspired to push the envelope and bag the status quo.

Yes, it’s time consuming for small business to figure out how to maximize social media, but it’s worth the effort. Before you discount the idea, consider these points.

Put your marketing destiny back in your own hands. Social tools allow you to create your own media storm – viral if you’re lucky. These options offer a means to keep you from relying solely on traditional media to get your story out on the street.

As an example, Twitter and Linkedin were two of the media choices I used outside the normal press and outreach channels during a recent event campaign. This was the first event I’ve been involved in where registration hit 60% capacity a month before the event date. Most of us know it’s painful attracting early registrations and they usually don’t kick in until about two weeks before the event. Twitter and Linkedin were used to update progress, giveaways and pre-event press, as well as sneak peek a few photos.  It gave the event a real boost with registration ultimately reaching 100% of capacity.

Post event, photos are streaming and video clips are uploaded via YouTube, allowing the business discussion and networking to continue. This activity leverages the brand and investment well beyond the actual event date. Equally as important, it renders marketing support for future events.

For anyone not located in a major urban hub, Twitter also provides an important opportunity to expand your network and “meet” people you might not otherwise have the chance to get to know and/or learn from. This does take some diligence on your part. Look up names from magazine/news articles on Twitter, read their updates, and then check out who these people follow. Ditto with blogs. You’ll follow links you won’t deem relevant, but when you find a few industry leaders that match your world, it’s valuable. I found John Battelle and Fred Wilson this way, plus several more. Both of their tweets offer insight into trends, reports, and data I care about and add enough personal info that they seem like real people. On the flip side, I’m attending the Federated Media (Battelle’s group) CM Summit in June. These guys may not be in your space, but you get the idea. Find people in your industry, check out who they follow, and see what you learn.

If this doesn’t work for you, you can always go back to pounding the pavement.

So, I was perusing Clickz this morning in search of an interesting piece of news to share with my readers when I found an article noting Microsoft’s involvement in creating a Twitter Suite. Looks like Microsoft has partnered with Federated Media to create a Twitter app a “platform that aggregates the tweets of top business execs and empowers the community to surface the most insightful, business-related tweets.” (I’m not gonna lie, that quote was straight from the about us section of their new product called ExecTweets.) I haven’t had a chance to test out the tool but looks like tons of business professionals and executives are using the tool. Stay tuned for my review of product. By the way.. I also think it’s worth noting that ExecTweets is using the link shortening tool called Bit.ly. Pretty sweet tool actually.

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Earlier this week YouTube launched a new feature for non-profit organizations called “Call to Action”, allowing these organizations to place special overlay ads on their videos free of charge. These overlays can direct viewers to the non-profits’ homepage, where users can elect to donate money, sign up for mailing lists, and interact with other members in the community. And unlike typical ads on YouTube (which video uploaders don’t generally have control over), non-profits can specifiy exactly which page they’d like to redirect to. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/27/special-youtube-ads-earn-nonprofit-10000-in-a-single-day 3/27)

GREAT for non-profits who are dealing with a particularly difficult economic climate.  If you’re a non-profit, click the image below to be apply for the program.

Google is developing technology to connect its television-advertising brokering business to YouTube and eventually video on other Web sites. The Internet giant sees an opportunity to wrest business from traditional TV-ad sellers such as stations and cable companies. (Iwantmedia 3/27, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123809601439550709.html 3/27)

Facebook is said to be trying to secure some $100 million in debt financing to help cover leases for the growing number of computers it needs to operate. The social network’s user growth carries huge tech costs; Facebook is now the world’s largest photo-sharing site. (Iwantmedia 3/27, http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090326_604141.htm 3/26)

Federated Media is unveiling MarchTweetness, sponsored by AT&T. The aggregation of tweets devoted to NCAA college basketball’s “March Madness” is the second Federated Media-Twitter program, following on the heels of Monday’s launch of ExecTweets. (Iwantmedia 3/27, http://venturebeat.com/2009/03/26/twitter-madness-comes-to-college-basketball/ 3/26)

Are these types of pages to be more prevalent to come?  Will we have a separate page for every trending twitter subject?

ABC News is launching a daily 15-minute political webcast, “Top Line,” live on ABCNews.com. The webcast, featuring interviews and audience interaction, will be hosted by Rick Klein, political reporter and author of “The Note,” and political director David Chalian. (Iwantmedia 3/27, http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/190726-ABC_News_Plans_Political_Webcast.php 3/26)

CBSNews.com also added a new weekly interactive webcast powered by UstreamTV. Backstage Live offers viewers the chance to query the guests following their appearance on The Early Show, including the musicians who appear on the weekly “Second Cup Cafe” segment. Correspondent Cali Carlin and CNET Senior Editor Natali Del Conte will anchor the webcast, available on Saturday mornings from 7-10 am ET. (Cynopsis 3/27)

Everybody’s doing it. Even YouTube has succumbed to Twitter mania. Below every video if you click on the “Share” link you will find three options: MySpace, Facebook, and now Twitter. You can expand the box for even more sharing options, but those are the main three and Twitter was just recently added. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/26/youtube-adds-a-twitter-button 3/26)

Video screens are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in modern society, and adults are exposed to them for about 8.5 hours each day, according to a study by the Council for Research Excellence. While video pops up on everything from cell phones to the backs of airplane seats, the study found that viewers are most engaged when watching television and playing video games. The New York Times (3/26) , USA TODAY (3/26)

Thanks to the Internet, the U.S. film, television and electronic gaming industries are starting to see their economic foundations overturned, observers say. In Hollywood, “there is a sense that it may all be coming to an end and that the old business models can’t survive.” (Iwantmedia 3/27, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/26/AR2009032603702.html 3/27)

Estoy segura que de la gente jóven en México, la mayoría sabe lo que es una red social y las utiliza. Empezando por MySpace, seguido por Hi5 y en los últimos meses (pero a una velocidad increíble) se ha expandido la utilización de Facebook. Sin embargo, aún son pocos los que conocen o utilizan Twitter.

Twitter es un servicio que se ha llamado de “microblogging” ya que se trata de una comunidad que se relaciona por medio de posts de no más de 140 caracteres. En EEUU esta aplicación se ha vuelto super popular. Incluso jugaron un papel muy importante en las ultimas elecciones presidenciales. Para darte una idea del crecimiento e impacto de este sitio, chécate este brief de Twitter en Strat-Cons o checate lo que Tim Oreilly opina de esta aplicación en este post de Lola como mola
Y bueno, ahora Microsoft y Federated Media utilizan el API de Twitter para crear ExecTweets. Para todos aquellos que quieren entrar a las altas esferas de la innovación empresarial. O sea los nuevos líderes mundiales de negocios. Entre las 2 empresas han elegido a los miembros que ellos consideran, pertenecen a este selecto grupo y los han indexado a un directorio interactivo llamado ExecTweets.  O sea, tendran la oportunidad de estar más en contacto unos con otros con todas las ventajas de Twitter. Algunos nombres? Richard Branson de Virgin y Jay Adelson de Digg

Nuevo sueño guajiro, algún día intercambiar información de negocios siendo parte de ExecTweets. O crear mi propio directorio jiji.

Wasn’t it just yesterday that Twitter got off the ground? It has quickly segmented its market, and now, has expanded to ExecTweets, a site devoted to what executives are saying on Twitter. ExecTweets is a partnership between Federated Media and Microsoft. It is a platform that “aggregates the tweets of top execs and empowers the community to surface valuable and insightful business-related tweets”.

ExecTweets, still in its infancy and currently being offered as a beta site, boasts of 75-80 top executives. The Twitter craze has definitely caught on and is poised to grow.

ExecTweets gives you the option of joining the tweet or recommending an executive that should be on the site by replying to @exectweets via Twitter, or alternatively, you can follow the executive chatter on ExecTweet.

Talk about an inspiring partnership.

A while back I wrote a post on forging partnerships and the benefits that allies working together can leverage for a marketing campaign or a business. I’m sitting here in the Production Room of a studio in Boston, preparing for a live webcast today, and noticed on my RSS feed an article about a new Twitter feed and website developed by a partnership of Twitter, Microsoft and Federated Media.

Twitter Inc. and ad network Federated Media on Monday unveiled what might be a new way for the popular microblogging service to make money.

They launched an “ExecTweets” page built by Federated Media and sponsored by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) that collects Twitter postings, known as tweets, by prominent corporate executives.

Despite the typical rants and raves of users any time a brand or corporate entity tries to leverage a mainstream social media community like Facebook or Twitter, this kind of partnership provides value. Other than digesting one these executives’ corporate blogs, this may be the next-best way to get into their heads. Possibly even in a more personal, less-jargon-filled way (wait, I’m a marketer…jargon is good!). It could be a bueprint for companies that want to leverage Twitter in a powerful, contextual way.

Again, I advise you to take a good, long look at potential partnerships, and think differently about how to accomplish goals that look unreachable by working with others.

Interesting interview with Morgan Webb of G4 and formerly of WebbAlert (WebbAlert was a Federated Media author and I work at FM.)  I’m really proud of this portion of the interview:

Unlike a lot of Internet video experiments, we were able to make good money making WebbAlert. Federated Media was fantastic at selling us, and I’d like to thank them for helping us do as well as we did. I think the secret to making money in this space is to keep your costs way down. We didn’t have any full-time employees, and our production process was incredibly cheap and streamlined.

Thanks Morgan!  Another portion of the interview is pretty sobering:

The script would take about five to six hours, then make-up, filming, compressing and uploading took another hour to two hours, then the show was edited and uploaded by about 1 a.m. That’s about 17 hours of work for one episode.

So many people think of independent web publishing as an easy job.  You utilize free (or virtually free) tools, you can do your work in your pajamas, you can work from anywhere, etc.  That isn’t the reality.  While you might be able to work in your pajamas if you want to it is very difficult work.  I work with over 100 independent authors and each one of them is working extremely hard.  They are all exceptionally talented and dedicated but none of them are on auto pilot and successful for long.

One of the reasons I think so many traditional publishing ventures have been so slow to excel online is that it is really hard work.  It takes more people.  It takes as much or more time.  It is evolving very rapidly.

It’s hard work.

Comcast has teamed with Federated Media–a company which, among other things, provides marketing services to blogs–and with four high-profile blogs to develop a digital video guide for its Fancast portal (note: Fancast, which was launched at CES in January, is a Web portal that features free-to-view streaming video content from over 100 content providers, including 6,000 full-length episodes and movies; it allows users to view programming, search for video content–whether on Fancast itself, on the Internet in general, on TV, or in movie theaters–and manage their content choices). Dubbed “Our TV Picks,” the new service is billed by Comcast as bringing “top bloggers, ‘Ask a Ninja,’ ‘Boing Boing,’ ‘Dooce’ and ‘NOTCOT’ together for a robust conversation about the best video content on Fancast.” In addition to featuring regular posts from the four blogs (end-users will, for example, discover why “Ask a Ninja” thinks “CSI: Miami” is “actually a comedy hiding inside a drama”), the new service allows end-users to engage with the blogs and with one another about content on Fancast. “‘Our TV Picks’ is one more way that Fancast is creating the greatest entertainment experience on the Web,” Karin Gilford SVP of Fancast and online entertainment at Comcast Interactive Media, said in a prepared statement. “By partnering with these bloggers, Fancast users can engage in buzz around entertainment on the site. So not only is Fancast helping them watch great content online, but we’re helping them experience it as well.”

Blog provider Six Apart is set to give bloggers another avenue to make money.

Just like Facebook or MySpace in the social networking world, the San Francisco, Calif., startup wants to combine its blog and advertising platforms and start doing some “new clever things” integrating advertising within its blog platform.

Blog advertising 2.0

Which could be music to the ears of marketers that already run advertising campaigns on social networks like Facebook or MySpace. “In the blog world, no one has done that because there’s been a separation between the blog platform and the advertising side. We’ll be the only blog platform of scale that has these kinds of advertising programs,” said Six Apart CEO, Chris Alden, in a recent interview.

Six Apart has already attracted H-P, MSN, Best Buy and Chevy’s marketing dollars.

Targets dedicated but not huge bloggers

This could bring in some new hope to bloggers trying to make money off their blog.

“Bloggers can either be one of the lucky few that can be part of a large advertising network like a Federated Media, with about 150 blogs in their network or use Google AdSense that will bring back very very low CPMs, less than 50 cents. And we think we can do a much better job for bloggers who are dedicated but not huge,” adds Alden.

Federated Media CEO John Battelle lost one of his best blogger, GigaOM, to IDG's ad network

A shake up is brewing in the cozy world of technology blogs advertising.

Federated Media Publishing – an ad network which delivers advertising to some of the most prominent tech blogs around like TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Ubergizmo, VentureBeat, Technologizer or Silicon Alley Insider – has “slashed” its ad rates 35%.

Despite deep cut rate, advertisers are hard to find

To add insult to injury, the San Francisco startup is now having a hard time attracting enough advertisers to fill its network of blogs, despite a recent “holiday promotion,” leaving blogs with stories without accompanying ads and cutting even deeper into the blogs’ revenues.

Having seen the writing on the wall, blogger Om Malik decided to split with Federated Media, to partner with IDG TechNetwork, formed last March by large technology media company IDG, publisher of InfoWorld, PCWorld, MacWorld, CIO, etc. This new media network of independent technology publishers will sell ads for Om’s 7 blog properties (GigaOM, Earth2Tech, jkOnTheRun…).

At these low advertising prices, the $100,000 question for Federated Media today is, who’s going to be next to leave the boat?

[qi:076] Three years ago, when John Battelle and Chas Edwards met with me for a cup of coffee across the street from the old Business 2.0 offices in downtown San Francisco, their company, Federated Media, was still in its infancy, and our company, Giga Omni Media, was little more than a dream. John, a long-time friend and a peer from the tech media world, asked me if I would sign on with his studio of talent and let them represent my then one-man effort, GigaOM.com, commercially. Naturally, I said yes. In the time that passed we had our ups and downs, successes and embarrassments. But we progressed and prospered together.

John now sits atop a gigantic company that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and represents everyone from BoingBoing to mommy bloggers like Dooce. And Federated Media has become more than just a studio for technology bloggers, but a leader in the conversational marketing movement.

Progress is often accompanied by a divergence of ideas and ambitions within partnerships. At Giga Omni Media, we have been developing a network that revolves around niche verticals. As our needs became more specialized, we sat down with the folks at Federated to try and figure out how we could continue to work together. But both sides quickly realized that instead it was time to wrap up what has been a successful business relationship.

Now we have teamed up with the IDG Group to represent the sales of advertising on our properties — seven today, and many more in the months to come. IDG has a growing blog ad network and I look forward to working with them. Of course, we will continue to supplement their work with our internal sales team, which has been instrumental in selling sponsorships for both our events and specialized weblogs.

Sure we are parting company with our business partners, Federated Media, but we are not ending friendships that have spanned two bubbles, many magazines and countless memories. Thanks to John, Chas, Jason and everyone at Federated for being part of our dream, and for working tirelessly on our behalf.

A lot cooking here and I am working on a couple of longer posts.  In the meantime, a long overdue update on some of the work Federated Media is doing that I’m really proud of:

- Comcast Fancast A celebration of great TV programming.

- BoingBoing Offworld BoingBoing looks at the world from a decidedly different angle.  Offworld focuses on the gaming space and provides a much needed alternative to the mainstream gaming sites.

-  Asus/Intel WePC What do you want in your next computer?  Share these ideas with peers or just browse the ideas from others.  There are already 1000s to review.

- Trendhunter TV underwritten by Verizon Wireless Nothing beats a great name and TrendHunter says just about everything you might want to know.  Worked with Verizon to underwrite the next chapter of Trendhunter.com.

- Digital Nomads Examines the growing group of workers that can truly work almost anywhere.  Tips, tricks, stories, challenges, a crowdsourced white paper, etc. Sponsored by Dell.

Many more.  Really excited and proud of the work I have the privilege of working on and/or watching and learning from my peers.

I’ve designed a couple pairs of shoes via Nike iD in my unheralded “stylist” career. One pair was inspired by the 80’s Lakers and the other by a desire for sneakers that don’t look ready made for a space exploration. The value proposition of the Nike iD product is that the user maintains creative control in an extremely easy, user-friendly experience. I managed to pull of my shoe executions despite the fact I have as much design savvy as the guy that commissioned “Whiskey Pete’s” outside of Vegas and the poor soul who designed these below. (And no, it’s not me! )

Recently, Nike’s digital agency, Razorfish collaborated with Watercooler Sports and Federated Media to translate the product’s level of customization to their display advertising efforts. (Disclosure: I work for FM) The Watercooler platform enables television and sports fans to connect. Over 20 million users have joined Watercooler fan communities on leading social networks including Facebook, MySpace, etc.

Nike ID tapped into these communities’ individual identities by having the display ads automatically reflect the team colors. Note the screenshots below where ads served on the New Orleans Hornets and San Francisco 49ers Watercooler Apps featured Nikes complete with team colors. (red and white for 49ers, teal and white for Hornets) Nice to see advertising dynamically reflecting product attributes!

Recently, Linkedin has “opened up” their platform to applications so one can craft an even more robust and self-promoting profile. Now I can display this poorly written blog to even more people and also search what people are saying about my company, Federated Media. BTW, it’s mostly positively “tweets” about FM! I wish I could say the same about my blog

Currently, there are only about 10 apps available however, pretty soon I would expect I will be able to  “throw some dentures” at someone I once collaborated on a project with or invite my colleagues to add a “HR -Benefits” widget. Screenshots of the WordPress and Company Buzz Apps below.

Writing about Silicon Valley in the rise and fall of the dot-com era would have been an interesting time.

Wired Magazine, The Industry Standard, Federated Media: These are only three of the things that John Battelle has done with the Web in the past ten years. And there’s more to come.

In this interview with Andrew Keen, Battelle casts a keen eye on what is past, and passing and to come in the Brave New Internet. Google, the subject of his latest book, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture is only one of these.

AfterTV: John Battelle

MP3 audio