As I sit in NYC waiting to meet and interview Steve Forbes alot has happened over the past week. My last post here was Friday announcing the web 2.0 workgroup. Since then I flew to NYC for BlogOn Confernce, Podcasts at IBM, down to DC, and back to NY for more podcasts and meetings. Starting soon I'll be posting here and on PodTech as a blog of the activities and summaries of the podcasts and meetings. Too much is happening not to document it on a blog.
In NY I met with the NY Times, IBM, media companies, dozens of companies at BlogOn, other entrepreneurs and podcasters. In fact I just got off the phone with the Libération publication in Paris talking about the trends in user generated content. Things are happening globally with this "web 2.0" (sorry for saying it again).
I've gotten a ton of feedback on the term Web 2.0 being overused. I agree and I've been using it a ton. I see the technical guys point of view of it as a "dumbing it down" message as insulting. I agree but we need to put this massive shift in context. The average person or executive from a media company needs context to understand the magnitude of what's happening. We are seeing things now that haven't been seen in years. For example Google reminds me of Microsoft in the 80s (I remember in 1988 saying there is no way Microsoft's stock can go higher... their performance since then was huge). Now Google is the same way -six months ago (and this morning) I thought there is no way it could go higher. Maybe we're seeing the same movie again. This 2.0 movement is not a bubble but real - real evolution (or revolution).
One thing is clear to me is that we'll be seeing a massive inbound tidal wave of content from individuals whether they by themselves, part of a blogger group, or part of a company. Podcasting is a communication revolution and all communications are impacted from politics to play and from individuals to corporations.
Podcasting is the just a step toward rich interactive media from audio to video. Another observation is that traditional institutions are just now seeing it but still behind in terms of really understanding it.
In my view I see a massive convergence coming between mainstream media (MSM) and user generated media - it has to do with community media and the key drivers are transparency, credibility, and trust.
I'm certain that new technical, business, economical, and social models will come into view that today look crazy to the average person. So if people call you crazy maybe that's a good thing.
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