Last year Steve Rubel of Edelman spoke at Mesh and this year the CEO Richard Edelman is here. Click on his name and see his blog — he gets about 9,000 hits/month. He’s all about the story — loved his talk. He talked about giving up control of the message and taking the risk of going with the spontaneous and dialogue rather than the traditional, controlled, top-down message. It is now all about control vs. credibility. He gave a great example of the Dove campaign and their “evolution” video which blossomed into an active website and the multiplier effect of space on talk shows. Edelman’s words, “the power of free media is so much more than purchased.” Loved his conversation about influencers and “the voice”, and of course, the paradox of transparency. He talked about working with NYC on their Lower Manhattan information website which is more like a living press kit but one that shares good and bad and allows conversation.

I was intersted in Richard’s comment about having 8 people who are learning, listening and disseminating within their organization, specifically about what is happening with technology and industry these days. I want to continue that conversation with him if I can. There are 27,000 people in his organization and they achieve their position in the industry by “experimentation & pushing it”, allowing “tolerance for dissent and discussion.”
Other quotes:
“the mix of media is changing”
“the line between PR and advertising is blurring”
“once you’re in the soup, let it cool off before you put your fingers in it”
“it’s like hockey — if you score more goals than the competition, you win” — he was talking about experimenting and making mistakes, great analogy — Edelman’s takes its slams but has distinguished itself with social tools
“PR is all about being an advisor, connector, idea source, creator NOT spin”

Edelman urged the Mesh group to do three things:
* make stories visual
* don’t be defeated: if it doesn’t work, it’s like skiing — if you’re not falling, you’re not learning
* don’t say to your clients, “this is your little box,” rather be bold, assertive, and platform neutral
Here’s Edelman’s post about the conference and a link to the transcript of his talk.

The program for IL2008 is now up online. Once again in Monterey CA, October 29-31, Internet Librarian has a great line up of speakers for workshops, conference sessions, and keynotes — see below.
Monday, Oct 29 — Lee Raine, Pew Internet & American Life Project on 2.0 & the Internet World
Tuesday, Oct 30 — Joe Janes, iSchool, U of Washington on Reference 2.0
Wednesday, Oct 31 — Hallowe’en — bring your costume!
Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land on Future of Search
Liz Lawley, Rochester Institute of Technology, Lab for Social Computing (she’ll be wearing a costume!) on Gaming, Learning & the Information World.

We’re going to be talking about YouTube for Libraries for the Education Institute as part of the Tech Tuesday series on Tuesday May 29, 3-4 pm EST.

We have asked our listeners to check out one of the following YouTube library videos that were honoured recently at Computers in Libraries 2007 during the First InfoTubey awards. They are short so you might want to check them all out! But watch out, you’ll be humming the Seneca Holiday Song for days! We love it.

McCracken County Public Library
Paducah, KY
for their series of YouTube productions, including:
Dr. Duck & Super Librarian

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New Jersey State Library
Trenton, NJ
What Are Your Three Reasons?

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Seneca College Markham Library
Toronto, ON
Holiday Song

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Williams College Libraries
Williamstown, MA
The L-Team

Interesting to hear Martin Nisenholtz, SVP, Digital Operations from the 156 year old New York Times talk to the Streaming Media conference in NYC. He talked about their first video in 1999, How to roast a chicken, and how they partnered with cable TV to do documentaries and then gained more skills through a venture with Discovery. In November 2005 they set up their own digital operation as a pilot to extend the Times journalism, and it has now become part of the newsroom. The department has grown to a large network of journalists who have cameras and videocams in many parts of the world. They produce about 100 original pieces per month and have had many award nominations. Consumer response has been good: “I love learning by seeing & hearning”, “good quality & sincerity”. Most reporters are accompanied by a video specialst but the skills of the reporters are developing which creates more opportunities for video journalism. The NYT is developing the personalities of some of their reporters online, like David Pogue on technology. Check out Pogue’s amusing “Blackberry Magic”.
I loved Martin’s quote, “Web content is part of the big swirling conversation”. Definitely.

Just picked up C21’s magazine — FutureMedia: next-generation media and entertainment. The April/May issue has some interesting stories about Microsoft TV, JumpTV (live TV online…anywhere….anytime), Joost (a new way to watch TV), and a great story about virtual worlds, Virtual Worlds Get Real. Author Michael Mascioni says,

The biggest indication yet of how seriously TV companies are taking virtual worlds came earlier this year when CBS invested in the Electric Sheep Company, a specialist in the space.

Interesting to hear discussions at Information Today’s Streaming Media conference focused on user generated content, digital rights management and copyright. To hear that companies are worried about copyright and working on audio and video fingerprinting. Dimitry Shapiro, CEO, Veoh Networks in LA said that the old adage “content wants to be free” is illustrated by the user-generated revolution where people want to express themselves for social and political reasons, not to make money, even “beer money”! And this is the platform that is changing the world.

BTW, Veoh’s website says this is what they do —

Veoh is a Web site that’s headed for your TV. It’s also the name for a suite of applications for collecting, publishing, and watching a vast selection of HD-quality video programming. Veoh is a diverse, virtual community of indie publishers coming together with their new audiences. And it’s also a few offices in Southern California full of entertainment industry insiders, outsiders, and technologists.

Libraries have known for years how to target the interests of their clients and grow communities with similar interests. That’s the holy grail for many types of companies today — finding the user base, the niche target markets — and they are looking at behavioral targeting. James McQuivey, VP, Television & Media Technology, Forrester Research, commented that more engagement measures are needed for websites but that it is absolutely true that if you have video on your website, people will spend more time there.

I look forward to hearing Martin Nisenholtz, Senior VP, Digital Operations, The New York Times Company speak tomorrow.

I just met Sean Moffitt of Agent Wildfire, a word of mouth (WOM) expert in Toronto. Of course, I had to come to Montreal to meet him! And I just learned from his blog, that there are over 500,000 people in Toronto on Facebook! I also love his post on the regional anomolies of the Facebook population. And, Sean talks about and is immersed in influencers, a subject which I’ve been interested in for years….. Unfortunately I missed Sean’s talk on viral marketing at webcom Montreal, but here’s Kates coverage of Sean’s talk.

Here at webcom Montreal Kate Trgovac of reInvent! Communications. Her blog. As she says, Second Life (SL) is not a game like World of Warcraft but a virtual environment, a metaverse or 3-D immersive environment. It is an economy where avatars roam, build relationships, try on different personas, shop & perhaps experiment with fashion, explore, learn (English classes), work (guides, customer service), celebrate (weddings, parties), hmourn (Virginia Tech site, etc. SL is a platform for creativity & co-creation — if you can imagine, you can create. As a marketer you can partner with residents and businesses. She’s now showing her home in SL, a meeting, a party (AOL), a reading, etc. Average age on SL 30, 72% over 25, 34% over 35. 58/42 male/female split, 100 countries represented. 76,000 premium residents (they pay) although 5.1 have registered. Last month, $7,251,903US was exchanged – wow, a real economy. Currency is Lindens which you can buy, sell, earn and convert to US dollars.

So how do businesses use SL. First, to create a buzz. But need a plan beyond that. Other opportunities:
new marketing channel:
* Telus store front, can buy a headset for avatar (see what captures attention, so good for experiementation with new products)
* Sears, sells kitchens and you can change to see what you like and then order & have delivered to house (not avatar’s house)
* American Apparel, can buy for avatar and get a couple for real life store

gather customer feedback:
* Starwood, avatars can wander and use rooms and Starwood listens to comments and uses for building luxury hotels
* market research through focus groups in SL, and present to SL

usig SL for brand engagement (traditional)
* NBA launched last week — play hoops, shop at NBA store, T-Mobile Arena where you can watch a game and may be able to participate, players room (info about players), lots to do on their island and interaction; great for new thing junkies
*AOL island is engaging with lots going on — pavillions and entertainment about their areas of business — see movies trailers, games, etc. Taking their best entertainment and putting into 3-D.

using SL for brand engagement (emotional) — room for partnerhips
* L-world island for women — orientaiton, shopping, clothes (invited designers in to create clothes for avatars — partnership)
* Avita - real life hairstyles company partnering with a in-world designer for hairstyles for avatars
* Coke content for vendig machines, designs which will be used and distributed throughout SL

Also being used as an internal tool
* IBM, Sun, Microsoft use for meetings of people in many different geographic areas
* CDC seminars about preparedness in your community

“Just as companies expand internationally and view China as a huge potential growth market, they will view SL and other immersive virtual worlds as new regions ripe for expansion.” From a new, forthcoming book coming out by Jack Myers, Virtual World: Rewiring Your Emotional Future.

Great to hear the social tools discussed in a business context. Liz Lawley is speaking today at Webcom Montreal. Always learn something from Liz — didn’t know that the BBC now has Twitter feeds, interesting. Link to slides when available.

IBM tops the list of corporate sites on Second Life according to John Brandon, writer, author & former IT manager. IBM has 230 employees actively involved and almost 2 dozen islands. Other sites include: Pontiac, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Reuters, Cisco Systems, H&R Block and Best Buy Geek Squad. For more check out this IT World Canada article.