You may have noticed that the site has been down this morning. There has also been connection issues over the past few months. I’ve now shifted Social Times to a new server and we will be back on a regular posting schedule. Let us know if you run into any problems with accessing the site.

Last week I came to the Bay Area to attend Web 2.0 Summit and it ended up being one of the most historical weeks in this country’s history. Following the election of Barack Obama there was a huge wave of inspiration that was felt throughout those attending the Summit and based on the news articles I’ve read, the entire world.

Whether or not you voted for Barack Obama, there is now doubt that the belief in the American Dream has been revived within this country. Without it, we could have not elected the first African American President. Without going on about the numerous emotions felt this week, I wanted to express some of the most important takeaways for me personally.

Must Move Beyond the Hype

Al Gore said something which was extremely important:

When people are displaying interactivity or user generated content or social networking or whatever, that’s kind of the gee-whiz stuff. I’m not trying to diminish that at all but I am saying that I think our challenge really, those of us who are excited about the speedier development of the full potential that we have here. We need to move past that as quickly as possible to a time where all those features are just taken for granted, and is just like the water the fish doesn’t know it’s swimming in, and how do we get there.

I couldn’t have agreed more. I spend day after day talking about each feature that every social networking site adds, each new platform that they launch on, and theorize about where all of this is going. Yesterday for instance, one of the popular stories in the tech blogosphere was that LinkedIn had added events to their site.

Yes, it is great to see them adding such features, and yes it is great to watch where all of this is going, but it’s time to focus on the bigger picture. Many of us though are already taking advantage of these new technologies (social networks, social media, etc) to communicate more effectively with each other.

The Energy Revolution

There are numerous crises taking place around the world today. Whether it’s the two wars we’re involved in, the financial crisis, or most importantly the energy crisis we are facing, there is a revived sense of urgency. One thing that Al Gore said yesterday particularly inspired me and I felt that it was important to share it with as many people as possible. While I can’t find the exact words he said, this is in essence the story he shared:

In 1961, John F. Kennedy stood before the American people and asked Congress to provide the funds necessary to put a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth. The funds were granted and the mission was achieved. On the day that we landed on the moon, the average age in the control room at NASA was 26 which means that on the date of the announcing the mission, the average age of those individuals was 18. The young ones will also be the ones that are going to help develop the tools necessary to achieve complete energy independence.

While the numerous other crises facing this country are of equal or greater importance, it is important not to lose focus from energy related issues as it contributes substantially to global instability.

We Have the Ability to Get There

It’s time to start a movement. Al Gore sat down yesterday and told Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle that he feels as though he has failed. While he regularly instills the sense of urgency into those individuals that get to see him speak live, within a short period of time that sense of urgency is gone and most people fail to act.

Yes, switching out your light bulbs is one component of solving the energy crisis. I believe though, that given our knowledge of social media and our ability to spread ideas faster than ever before, we are properly positioned to drive the change necessary to accomplish extremely challenging goals. As we wait for a complete agenda to be put forth by the new Obama administration, it’s time to start preparing to leverage our expertise in social media and social technology to help drive change.

Whether you agree or disagree with everything that the new administration proposes, they are at least listening and that’s a hell of a lot better then before. The way to have the loudest voice is through social media, so use it for change and the betterment of the world. Below is part of Gore’s talk at Web 2.0 Summit provided by CNET.

Driving in the car en route to LaGuardia airport, I find myself blogging. I have finally removed myself from the barriers of the wired world and am now completely mobile. The only thing which remains unresolved is my mail but aside from junk mail most companies have made it possible to receive the electronic versions of my bills. I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing but it is now part of my life.

While there will be new technologies that make mobile internet access more ubiquitous, there is sufficient technology available to make myself omnipresent. The only challenge while writing a mobile blog post is the continuous noise from the people surrounding me. “Shut up!” I yell, but they ignore me wondering why I continue to type on my keyboard.

I tried blogging during dinner but that didn’t work out so well. So now I’m blogging in a car and ultimately I’m finding that mobile blogging is nowhere near as efficient as sitting at my desk, focused on a single task. A while back I wrote that my goal was to become completely untethered (that word provided by my mobile companion). Soon enough I realized “detached” was not an adjective I wanted to use when describing myself.

Now I am completely mobile but I will still return to my home based. I guess it’s a fact of life. The totally nomadic life is a lonely one so I decided to opt-out and remain completely mobile yet not nomadic, if that makes sense. Have you figured out a way to become a completely nomadic? Do you think there is any reason for becoming a digital nomad or is being mobile sufficient?

This is a continuation in the series “The Social Web Economy”

Social web agencies are the companies that help develop branded products on the social web. Currently large traditional media companies are the most prevalent organizations on social platforms and elsewhere on the social web but that is slowly beginning to change. These agencies specialize specifically on leveraging the distribution platforms for exposure and the product companies to purchase reach.

The social web agencies sell the development of a product and user exposure to those products as advertisements. This is because there is no way to guarantee that an application (product) is going to succeed in the long-run. In the best case an application will take off and maintain and active user base. How that works for the brand beyond their initial install buy will depend on how the contract between the agency and the brand was structured.

There are some fundamental challenges facing the social web agencies though including those suggested by Seth Goldstein this morning. When advertisers and brands are used to buying IAB-standard ads it’s an uphill battle in convincing them to build custom, non-standard applications. Thankfully large brands and advertisers in general are willing to experiment.

The agencies have tension on two fronts: distribution platforms and ad networks. The reason for tension is that these companies are taking away ad buys directly from the platforms as well as the ad networks. While some agencies combine ad buys with development, there are many clients that simply seek the development of high quality applications.

That’s not to suggest that there isn’t enough room for all companies to exist but in many circumstances each company is offering an advertising option that can be substituted for the other.

Next in this series: “The Social Web Economy: Ad Networks & Sales Teams“

This is a continuation in the series “The Social Web Economy“

On the social web, widget companies and application platforms are the primary distribution companies. Facebook, MySpace, Clearspring and Gigya are all examples. These companies strive to expand their reach either through partnerships or through sheer force. Facebook for instance has enough momentum that they can grow virally.

Widget platforms on the other hand are forced to sign agreements with large product organizations and media companies to expand their reach and incentivize developers to build on their platforms. Just as there is tension between product and distribution companies, so too are there tensions between widget platforms and broad social platforms.

The reason is that they are all battling for developer attention as well as the attention of large product companies. This is an extremely challenging role because not only do they need the developers and product companies (which are essentially large teams of developers), but they also need to attract the attention of advertisers.

The benefit of this position is that attracting advertisers is as easy as calling them. Most brands managers will pick up the phone if somebody from Facebook calls. The problem that many of these companies are running into is that the product companies who are building reach through the platforms are now undercutting their run rates on advertisements. Whoops!

This isn’t completely horrible though as a side-effect is that it is in everybody’s best interest to work together to try to increase the overall run rates (cost per thousand impressions (CPM), etc) across the board. Unfortunately there are some substantial hurdles to get past before this happens.

One other interesting note about distribution companies/platforms is that these are the companies that attract the largest investment dollars. Investors are looking to put their money in platforms for the most part, not product companies. That’s not to say that product companies don’t get funding, it’s just that they don’t receive as much funding. That’s because platforms will always be larger (at least they should be).

Next Post: “The Social Web Economy: Social Web Agencies“

This is a continuation in the series on “The Social Web Economy“

I didn’t forget them! I chose to put this last because so often in the social web economy and the general digital economy this is where “average” consumers get placed. Outside of the people and companies that I listed above (who also happen to be consumers), the general consumer frequently gets left out of the equation. The systems are frequently built for the digital experts not for the average Joe.

These are probably the most important individuals in any economy. Without them there are no advertising dollars to be spent. On the social web the users spend their time playing games, viewing media (photos, videos, audio, text) and creating media. All of these things can be boiled down to one thing: communicating. As opposed to traditional media, new media is all about two-way communication.

The products and platforms being built for consumers currently help make communication more efficient.  While in the main economy, consumers pay for their goods and services, most often users don’t pay for products in the social web.  This is because most revenue is driven by advertising.  All that consumers are limited to is attention and that’s what sites are competing for in the social web economy.

While the sustainability of an advertising driven economy is questionable, for now the battle is over attracting the users.  This is the single most significant challenge for any product or platform in the social web economy.  Even if you can get developers to build great products on your platform, there’s no guarantee that consumers will use it.

Next Post: “The Social Web Economy: What Are These People Building?“

This is a continuation in the series on “The Social Web Economy“

You can’t have a good product if it doesn’t look good. While the initial launch of the Facebook platform brought about applications with poor design but broad success, the quality of design has slowly begun to improve. The reality is that designers give products that extra bit of appeal necessary to get users to try it out. Absolutely everybody in the social web economy wants to have a good image and design is the best way to instantly get a great image. While a great logo doesn’t mean you run a great company, having a good initial image is important part of any business.

Since everybody wants their company to look good, designers frequently get to know just about everybody in the social web economy. They design everything from websites to applications, from user interfaces to color combinations, from logos to brochures. Everybody can give you their own opinion on how important design is for your company. A venture capitalist may tell you that having an amazing looking presentation with great slide transitions isn’t as important as having good content. That doesn’t mean they will take you seriously if your presentation looks like a third grader designed it.

While developers are hard at work ensuring that products work properly, the designers are making sure that the product looks good. Interestingly enough, developers are frequently one of the sources of tension for designers. Some times extravagant designers are not easily implemented and as such designers are forced to work with constraints, which is something no designer enjoys.

The primary source of design for designers? Clients. Regularly, a client will come to a designer with preconceived ideas of how they’d like something to look. This immediately places more restrictions on the designer, something I just said they don’t enjoy. You will find designers working within just about all the companies in the social web economy. While you can debate the importance of top tier designers, you can’t debate whether or not design is an important aspect of the social web economy.

Next Post: “The Social Web Economy: Consumers“

This is a continuation in the series on “The Social Web Economy“

Communications and public relations professionals have one of the most interesting positions in the social web economy. The primary role of these individuals is to gain exposure for their clients and ensure proper image. In the past few years we have seen the emergence of a number of firms focused strictly on companies participating in the social web economy or simply looking to leverage the social web.

These individuals typically work for agencies or firms but a few have decided to go it alone, often times resulting in full-time, temporary positions in the companies they are consulting. On the social web, the emergence of influential blogs has transformed the dynamic between journalists and PR professionals.

New technologies have also made it easier for companies to engage directly with their consumers. All of these things have combined to transform the role of the communications and public relations professionals. From helping prepare executives to speak to the press, to engaging increasingly accessible journalists about a negative article, the communications professional’s job is a challenging one.

While communications and public relations professionals are not directly tied to any sort of revenue generating activities, they help protect their clients’ image so that revenue generating activities can go on as usual. The main source of tension for these individuals is with the journalists and analysts, as they are frequently the gate keepers of the client’s image.

Next Post: “The Social Web Economy: Designers“

This is a continuation in the series on “The Social Web Economy“

Analysts jobs are relatively straight-forward: they analyze everything that is taking place in the social web economy and produce reports on them. They can work inside or outside of companies. The companies can be any of the primary companies in the social web economy or they can even work at actual analyst companies (like Forrester Research).

Analysts pay attention to detail and they can also double as a journalist sometimes. Unfortunately for journalists, there are too many stories to write to have anytime to do in depth analysis. Occasionally though journalists overlap with analysts and they end up producing substantive reports. Both journalists and analysts cover their space obsessively.

In my own opinion, the primary distinction between the two is that journalists focus much more of their effort on working their sources and writing articles. The analysts spend a lot more time doing research which can include working the same sources as journalists but for other types of information.

In the social web economy, I would say that one of the most substantial differences in comparison to other industries is how bloggers are accepted as journalists. While they may not always hold the same standard for reporting, blogs have a substantial reach in the technology field. As such web attending any conference that pertains to the social web economy you will see as many bloggers as traditional journalists if not more bloggers.

No matter who they write for, analysts, journalists and bloggers all are important because they help quickly spread information regarding the companies and people in the social web economy. The primary tension for this group is with other analysts and journalists as they compete for valuable information. Additionally, there is occasionally tension between analysts and journalists and their sources as the journalist will push to expose information that the source didn’t initially wish to reveal.

Next Post: “The Social Web Economy: Communications & PR Professionals“

This is a continuation in the series on “The Social Web Economy“

These are the wealthy people in the social web economy. They have a lot of cash on hand from either creating their own companies (or being part of a successful start-up) previously or they were fortunate enough (or not fortunate depending on how you look at it) to become a partner at a venture capital firm. No matter how they reached wealth, they now have access to a substantial amount of money that they like to invest in the five types of companies in the social web economy.

They are looking for a substantial exit down the road through acquisition or public offering that will help make their pockets fatter. In the case of venture capitalists this also means making their investors’ pockets fatter. The investors are necessary though for the most part because they not only bring money with them, they bring experience and they bring valuable connections that can make or break a company.

Whether you like them or not, investors are a critical component of any economy and there is no exception in the social web economy. Investing is also an extremely competitive “business”. While some invest based on referrals, there are other investors that are actively seeking new investments on a regular basis. In the social web economy, attracting the top teams to invest in is an extremely competitive process.

Most of the investments go to an elite group of investors but fortunately for the other investors, not all investments go to the top investment groups. In the current environment there has been far fewer exits than there has been investments. Obviously, exists are alway fewer than the total number of investments but exits have been significantly infrequent in the recent past.

In fact during the second quarter of 2008, for the first time in 30 years, no venture-backed companies went public. This could be a bad sign for things to come but it also may just be an indicator of a poor economic environment. Fortunately for investors acquisitions have provided an equally sufficient exit opportunity. Recently, acquisitions have served as the primary source of exits in the social web economy. As such, IPOs may not be the best indicator for the investment environment.

Whether or not exits or taking place, investors are the primary driver behind growth of the social web economy because they are providing the majority of the cash flow. Hopefully we will begin to see an increase in cash flow from venture-backed companies but for now, this group continues to be the source for growth. That’s why the social web economy needs investors!

Next Post: “The Social Web Economy: Analysts & Journalists”