Social Media Club

Attended the third meeting of the London social media club last night. It’s always good fun to meet like-minded people who are coming at the same issues as you from a different perspective. The group last night had a good mix of developers, PR professionals, hacks and consultants. Lloyd Davis led the session, which led to four different discussion groups based on different interests raised by the audience.

My own coterie was led by an interest expressed by Amit Kothari into the topic of attention. He was especially interested in the lifecycle of internet artefacts such as blog posts and YouTube videos. The topic ranged far and wide, but we kind of agreed that while text artefacts like blog posts appear to actually accrete value over time, thanks to the way Google works, video remains a bit of a mystery because it’s not so easily searched, and word of mouth appears to remain highly important to its dissemination. We thought flickr probably did a good job of ensuring that content gets immediate recognition and also lasting value thanks to the multiple levels of meaning that are added to images through tags, groups and comments.

We also started talking about the chances for a web OS, involving things like Google documents. I was quite surprised that most of my group – geeks to a man (and woman) – were quite sceptical because of trust issues giving Google control of your documents. I can understand that kind of distrust, but personally find the convenience and security (in the sense of backup, not access) means that these issues don’t ultimately prevent me using the service.

Time ended up quite short. Because it’s only the third meeting, a lot of time was taken up by introductions. In order to make these meetings have more value, I wonder if perhaps a set topic, guest speaker, demos from the developers and entrepreneurs in the club or even practical activities might be a good idea?

Left early owing to tiredness, only to find that high winds had wiped out the SW Train network. Much hilarity did not ensue.

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19 January 2007
10 Comments


10 Comments

Bob Boydston

19/Jan/2007

Years ago when I was Symantec (Norton Group), some of us discussed the concept of a Web OS. Many thought it folly because they were locked into the PC based (and Unix based) concept of an operating system, i.e., from a developer’s perspective. But, from the USER’S perspective an OS is simply a “place” where “things” can be accessed. Users, of course, are less concerned about how the OS keeps its integrity, simply that it does.

In terms of Google doing it, I think something line with GNU would be a better starting point. I think it is more in the spirit of the internet.

Ian Delaney

19/Jan/2007

Hi there Bob,
I’d love GNU to become the focus of a web OS, and it has the clout to resolve a lot of the fear around trust and ownership that comes with Google. I wonder why there isn’t any such move?

alan patrick

19/Jan/2007

Hi Ian

I’ve just linked to your blog article, I also wrote an article on last night over at broadstuff

Ian Delaney

19/Jan/2007

Thank you, Alan. Hopefully, Lloyd will gather us together in his SMC post.

Antony Mayfield

20/Jan/2007

Thanks for the notes, Ian – wish I could have made it there. Though it sounds like I would have had issues getting back…

Amit

20/Jan/2007

It was nice to meet you Ian. I hope we get the chance again to have a more elaborate conversation, and to learn more together.

Raj Anand

20/Jan/2007

Hi Ian and SMCLondon attendees

It was nice to meet up with everyone at the event although briefly. I look forward to meeting up with everyone soon.

Jimmy

20/Jan/2007

Great post Ian,

I was looking into heading to the Social Media Club taking place later this week, but was honestly a bit shy and thought I many be in over my head. I am just a tech guy, part engineer part developer, who writes a tech blog about the East Coast of the US.

Is it a fairly comfortable atmosphere ?

Just trying to gauge if I should try it out or not.

Thanks
Jimmy
East Coast Blogging

Raj Anand

20/Jan/2007

I think the atmosphere was really comfy – cold beers and wines with some really nice people made all the difference :) . Check out the pics:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/27148944@N00/pool/

Raj

P.S.: I’m a techie as well and felt at home

Ian Delaney

20/Jan/2007

Hi there Jimmy,
I can certainly recommend the London club as having a sociable and welcoming atmosphere. It was my first session there, and was made to feel very welcome. And I’m just a complete dolt who reads a lot of blogs, so with your tech background, I’m sure you’d be very warmly welcomed at your local club! It’s intended to bring together all kinds of people in the first place. And there’s free beer (… or was that supposed to be a secret?)
Ian


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