Clay Sharky has written a blog post which is essentially a transcript of his much discussed presentation earlier this week at the Web 2.0 Expo. His talk discussed the transformation of media and how individuals are being transformed in to media participants after existing only as media consumers for the past 30 years. One of the core components of the discussion surrounds the following statement:

Media is actually a triathlon, it ’s three different events. People like to consume, but they also like to produce, and they like to share. [This is in contrast to media in the 20th century which was run as a single race–consumption.] And what’s astonished people who were committed to the structure of the previous society, prior to trying to take this surplus [a cognitive surplus] and do something interesting, is that they’re discovering that when you offer people the opportunity to produce and to share, they’ll take you up on that offer. It doesn’t mean that we’ll never sit around mindlessly watching Scrubs on the couch. It just means we’ll do it less.

Clay proceeds to jump into some back of the envelope calculations on total cognitive expenditure by humans via television and compares that quantitatively to the shift toward participatory media. One of those calculations concludes that if 1 percent of all time spent consuming television worldwide is used on participatory media, there is enough cognitive energy to generate 10,000 Wikipedia projects per year.

As Clay Sharky states, the concept of “I can do that, too–is a big change.” Andrew Keen is somewhat accurate when he complains (in “Cult of the Amateur”) that the quality of media being created by individuals is not on the same level of the media being produced by the professional media. While all the media being generated by users is not necessarily “good media”, it is still better than traditional media that has been given to us simply for consumption and nothing else.

Rather than spending our “cognitive surplus” on just the consumption of alcohol and television as we have over the past century, this century will have an increase in people using their cognitive surplus toward new media creation. Is this going to create the downfall of traditional journalism and media? Not completely. I’m still going to enjoy a good television show (even if it doesn’t come to me via the television), but I’m also going to spend a lot more time participating (as I do with this blog).

Given the shift of cognitive surplus allocations, how do you plan on using yours?

I recently posted that social networks are the next television. Given that MySpace just inked another television programming deal, it would suggest that my inklings were correct. Last night I was thinking about it and the reality is that content comes from community. While you can generate content on less active sites, the majority of content comes from highly active sites. When you have more people participating, content production grows exponentially.

As new technologies have enabled us to connect to others more easily, networking has become increasingly popular. Prior to the net, it was phenomenal when you found people that successfully connected to create works of art. Now that connecting is easier, I would suggest that more art and more unique content is being produced. The traditional model of content distribution has been destroyed and a new form has been reinstated.

Jesse Thomas wrote in a recent article (which has yet to be published on this site due to editing constraints), “More people are watching content alone than ever before. We need to find ways to connect those lone viewers to connect with community in ways that fully utilize the potential of social media.” He continues,

Imagine you sit down on a Thursday night with your family and you turn on the “comedy” channel on your media unit (formerly known as tv), you then are able to choose from a selection of comedians. The comedian is standing there waiting for you to choose him to perform for your family.

The concept makes sense. Ultimately there will become so many channels of media and so many mediums for that media that ultimately media will become increasingly commoditized. The true stars become people like Gary Vaynerchuk who has a passion for what he does and has an all-star personality. These people may not take up hours of our time on a daily basis (as they did when we sat in front of the television for hours on end).

We will leverage folksonomies instead of traditional channels such as CNN, NBC and ABC. Want to go turn on the Finance channel? It will be a series of videos tagged by people as finance filtered by popularity and date.  The best part is there is no limit to the channels.  This is the power of the people and in turn the people ultimately become the next television. The people become the masters of distribution.

If you wanted me to give you a one word summary of newspapers in the future I would say: dead.   That’s not really the truth though and it’s not an accurate global picture.  The reality is that these companies, while slow to adopt new technologies for the most part are catching on and with cash in hand they are going to start snapping up those companies that understand new media most. So what is the consistency of an ex-newspaper company, future “new media” company?

• Researchers - Researchers may be one of the most important members of the new media company. These are the people that are constantly sifting through information and determining which articles to write about. They also don’t just find information through their filtering system but they also inquire to individuals to get commentary on issues in addition to getting more information about stories. Frequently the line between researchers and writers can be blurred.
• Producers - The producers are creating content that will be displayed and promoted. They are the writers, podcasters and video production teams. The average visitor comes to the new media company’s site to consume the content created by the producers. While the producers are frequently looking for content, just as the researchers do, these individuals’ specialty is in the art of creating unique and intriguing content.
• Editors - The editors are simply experienced producers. They have learned the lessons that new media has to offer and now they are teaching this to others. The editor also produces content on occasion but their job is more about teaching rather than doing.
• Designers - If you are building a new media company from the ground up, it better look good. You could argue about this until the cows come home. To the naysayers, I know that the Drudge Report doesn’t look great but then again they have a proven track record of breaking news stories time and time again. All I will say is that it is much easier to sell something when it looks good. In addition to designing your own site they will be providing design services to all your advertisers. Remember those people? Yeah, they are the ones that help keep you in business. If you make them look good, they will reward you generously.
• Developers - The developers make everything happen. You need to have developers to help you say on the leading edge of new media. This requires constant innovation and keeping a pulse on emerging technologies. In turn, you can provide your advertisers with more unique advertising solutions.
• Community Managers - The community managers loves your community. Every new participant in the community needs to be welcomed and supported. Without these guys your company is going to lack product evangelists and it will also lack transparency. You want anybody to be able to contact you and you want to respond to most inquiries. Each organization has a different ratio for number of active members to each individual community member. If you need to start calculating this, you are headed in the right direction.
• Events Coordinators - New media companies are master connectors. They help connect the community. While the connecting is done by the executives, the event coordinators help to organize “real world” events which enables people to connect on a personal level. If your company is the center of connecting people, you are going to be insanely valuable.
• Business Developers - This is straightforward and it’s the same way it has always been. You need a business development team to make money! This team helps you generate revenue and revenue is always a good thing. Hire people that have built a solid network with big advertisers and you are destined for success.
• Executives - Executives are the super-connectors and managers. While the management is more important, being able to connect people to generate partnerships is critical. The executives also set the vision for the organization so they better know what’s going on.

The new media company doesn’t simply write about the community, they are now forced to connect with the community. While there are more roles that could be added to this theoretical organization that I’ve written about, the main point is that while there are still similar roles and tiles, the roles have changed and the system has been transformed. While not the majority, a large percentage of content consumers also want to be engaged with the organization that is providing them with information.

Is there anything that I’m missing from this?

I have a great life, I am in a profession I love and I get to help people do their best. I help people navigate the world of social media and communications. My job allows me freedom of expression and the chance to guide people into an exciting world.

The reason I bring this up is that anyone can do what I do. Think of the social media hold outs you have as friends or family. Think about how much easier your life would be if they would join a social network.

I am suggesting that you become a Social Media Sherpa. Take it upon yourself to guide a friend or loved one up the path of social networking. Use the knowledge you have to help them steer clear of pitfalls that you fell into (20 songs that opened up automatically on Myspace?).

By helping someone else with social media you are solving two problems. One, your friend or loved one will be easier to stay in touch with. I would talk to my mom and dad every day if they could use twitter or even email with some confidence.

Two, you will actually will become a better user of social media. By talking out the finer points of social media with a friend you will become more aware of how best to use social media and in turn become a more active user.

Becoming a Social Media Sherpa is easy and rewarding. I suggest everyone take it upon themselves to find one person who needs guidance and help them out. Do you have it in you to be a Social Media Sherpa?If so let me know.

Tell me how you have helped someone enjoy social media and we can help others together. If you have any tips for our readers on how to get friends more involved in social media share them here.

I am a self-admitted Yahoo fanatic. I have been an avid Yahoo user since the mid 90’s and have integrated most of its services in my life.

Yahoo, a company that is supposed to be in financial troubles, has been launching all types of new applications lately. I think it is smart for Yahoo to do such, the reason they are running into market share problems is because they have grown stagnant for too long.

Yahoo has just announced the launching of its new service, Yahoo buzz, and it looks very nice. Buzz is a social news source, much like Digg, but with all the flash of Yahoo. The page is very sleek and the interface is quite simple.

The comparison to Digg is inevitable but Yahoo has the chance to bring social news to the main stream. Yahoo’s users typically tend to be slightly behind the adoption curve compared to Google. Unlike Google users they tend to be less likely to leave a service once they have adopted it.

I see potential in Yahoo’s social news service for two reasons. First, the more mainstream backing of Yahoo users. Secondly, Yahoo’s backing of Open ID is going to make all of its new services that much more accessible to late adopters.

My one hope is that Yahoo takes a little care to make sure that Buzz doesn’t fall the way of Digg. I would hate to see Yahoo’s new service turn into a trash filter like Digg. Don’t get me wrong, I like some of the stuff that comes across Digg, but much of it is just fluff and filler.

Take a look at Yahoo Buzz. Do you think it is just a Digg clone or will Yahoo finally be able to take social news mainstream? I personally think there is potential here. Am I wrong?

Glam Media must have some lofty goals for their women focused media network. Today they announced that they’ve raised an $84.6 million round combining $64.6 million in Series D financing and $20 million in debt financing. This is one of the largest rounds of financing for a “new media” company. Glam Media is a large ad network across over 450 lifestyle websites and blogs. Just about every week I receive a news alert about Glam Media hiring another executive to their management team. Apparently they don’t like to run things lean.

Last August, Mike Arrington asked if Glam is a big sham. Matt Marshall disagreed but also pointed out that the majority of Glam’s traffic comes from larger websites such as MyYearbook.com, Meez and Dogster. Having most of their traffic based on a few key partnerships is highly risky especially considering that even larger such as Fox and Google have the potential to split their ad deals.

One of Glam’s largest competitors is iVillage which is owned by NBC. The most interesting aspect of this round of financing in addition to previous rounds is how comScore data is consistently used to prove their lofty valuation. Month after month Glam Media is listed among the fastest growing websites. There are rarely any other statistics provided and it makes these deals a little bit sketchy. With almost $85 million in the bank you can bet that Glam’s investors have done their due diligence and have verified that these numbers aren’t all smoke and mirrors.

As I have mentioned before I come from the world of PR and Marketing, a world I will be getting back to very soon. Something that always was top of mind as a third party communicator (some who is hired to provide communication support) was managing expectations.

Look I love the entrepreneur spirit, I love to see companies taking a leap to provide the best service possible. However, when I was hired to provide PR/Marketing support the first thing I always did was try and manage my clients expectations. Every client thinks they have the greatest product since sliced bread, it was always my job to remind them that not everyone was going to think that out of the box.

I am bringing this point up to prove a fact, who is managing many of these social start-ups expectations? If part of your business model relies on using social media as a vehicle, shouldn’t you have some way of deciding if the social world wants your application or service?

A traditional model for analyzing value often involves PR people reaching out to analysts and setting up product demos. These analysts would then create a very objective look at the value and services a product provides. They also add third party credibility to what ever they are reviewing. This is the old model of doing things.

I know many of the new companies out there want to be seen as “ground breaking” and “changing the way we do business” but receiving an outside, non-bias, voice about what you are doing is incredibly helpful. I am sure many of the social start-ups out there are trying to do this with a Beta testing or something similar to it, but I think the messages are getting lost somewhere.

I say all of this because I have to wonder who says some of these social applications and social networks are a good idea. Every day I am sent emails and letters from CIOs and CTOs of these tiny social start-ups who are offering no real point of difference from the thousands of social applications that do the same thing.

Often I am compelled to write them and ask them why their product is diffrent. On the occasions that I have asked this I get some standard email back stating that company X is going to reinvent the wheel and is completely diffrent from company y and z.

Consider this an open letter to any social media start-ups out there. If you want an honest opinion what your product or service can do in the social market place email me or leave a comment on this post. I will give you honest feed back and try to offer any advice if I can. Just don’t complain that I lack vision or I am a “complete F-ing idiot” (I was actually called that in an email) if my opinion doesn’t match yours.

I look forward to hearing from you.

We have all heard about internet dating and finding true love via a social network. Well Karen over at Cordarouns.com is about it hit the streets of San Fransisco looking for her true love.

Karen has enlisted a myriad of social tools to help her on her quest ranging from Facebook and the others to the video/picture/text streaming service Zannel. Karen is going to hit the streets in an 8 hour frenzy to find her man.

Karen, who happens to be way cute, will start the day with a police sketch of her perfect man. She will then hit the streets and use followers input to help her make a V-Day date choice. I think the idea is fresh and fun and I am going to follow it.

Don’t get me wrong, I know this is a marketing ploy but I love it. These are the types of fun social media events and tools that ALL marketers should be looking into. This is the Budweiser Super Bowl Commercial of the web 2.0 age.

Look I am stuck at my desk maybe 3 to 4 hours a day, I have a rough job, but many people spend 8+ plus hours in their cube with nothing to do but work (how much of that can you do?). Karen’s experiment will let them watch something fun, funny and let marketers get some product placement while it happens.

I say good show to all parties involved. Karen and Cordarounds, way to think out of the box. Zannel, good job with highlighting your service in a fun way. Social networks, well you guys don’t need any more praise you created a platform for all of this to happen on.

To bad Karen isn’t doing this in DC, I know plenty of single guys who would love to meet her. Is anyone else out there going to be following Karen? Do any of you out there know of any more fun, online social events like this that you could tell me about? If so let me know.

Follow Karen at Zannel.

Rafe Needleman of Cnet is reporting that Yahoo is taking a jump in to streaming social video. The service is called Yahoo Live and sadly it is down at the moment. Rafe mentions in his post that the service faltered after 800 users signed on.

I have heard that Yahoo is going through some staffing problems right now but last time I checked Yahoo has a MASSIVE user base, myself included, and should have expected a flood of traffic. All that being said I am actually pretty excited about this development.

In the past couple of days I have been experimenting with services like Comvu and CommetNow to find a way to stream video from my phone to a website. I have a windows smartphone and I have been trying to find a way to remove latency from what I see and do, to what I can post.

Rafe says the Yahoo Live will have an open API to encourage users to ‘Mashup’ the Live product. I am a HUGE Yahoo fan and I hope this service takes off. The Live function will also have a chat function which could be fun. My dream is to have the Yahoo Live service go mobile somehow and let me stream right from my Motorola Q to a blog post.

I see it happening something like this: I am attending a networking event. I see that a good speaker is about to take the podium. I twitter to all my contacts that I am about to stream. I pull out my Q and begin to live stream to an embedded clip on one of my blogs. Hello world this is how social media should happen.

I know other services out there offer a ’similar’ service but none of them are perfect. I need to be able to do all of the streaming media things, without my laptop, and it need to be free. Sure I have an evdo connection for my laptop, but I don’t want to have to lug my laptop everywhere and who really knows when I will need to stream video.

Is anyone else out there excited that Yahoo is making the jump into the streaming media family? I see great potential in this field for bloggers and journalist and would like to see someone with the resources to make it happen take up the cause. I guess my final plea is that Yahoo gets this service back up and running so I can play start working with it.

I will never be one of those people who criticizes MTV for no longer playing music videos. I understand what MTV does, really I do. MTV is focused on doing cutting edge entertainment, and music videos are no longer the leading edge.

Think about it. MTV had reality TV before everyone else, they had prime time cartoons before everyone else, they had celebrity news long before it became the staple of six o’clock TV. MTV is about trying things that haven’t tried before.

That is why I am not surprised to see MTV video blogging this Super Tuesday. MTV has armed a group of attractive young adults with the amazing Nokia N95, the same camera/phone/awesomeness that Reurters’ reporters are armed with, to take to the street and do some in the field reporting.

MTV is uploading the videos directly from the phone to the web in a very bold move. These videos are unedited raw opinions of people on ‘the street’. Sure, the MTV reports will most likely seek out a certain type of voter, but the effort is noble. MTV is trying to cut out the journalist from reporting.

This is experiment is a fine example of using social media in the mainstream. MTV is using mobile technology to bridge the gap of time that is normally very prevailing in main stream media. Simple things like production time cause news to be old before it even hits the air waves.

I would like to see more media companies try this. I would really enjoy seeing CNN or Fox news start broadcasting on Seesmic or on their own websites. Real time news or op/eds might be something that could draw me back to mainstream TV.

Could this new form of reporting work as a way to get you to watch more television? Or do you think this tool will remain a technique of websites and new media? Let me know.