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Google Sidewiki: Website browsing with a side of chaotic insight

September 29, 2009 By 2 Comments

sideofgoogleWhat happens when you decide to let anyone leave comments on any website they visit? Google Sidewiki.

Although Google Sidewiki isn’t the first attempt by a company to integrate its comment system into the browsing experience, with the weight of Google and its popular toolbar behind it, it’s the first one that’s likely to succeed.

Google Sidewiki is a new feature of the Google Toolbar that lets you leave comments about any website. When some using the Google Toolbar views that web page, they’ll see your Sidewiki comments.

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Filed Under: crowdsourcing, google, Web, wikipedia Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Influence and Money: The Whuffie Factor and social media

July 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

whuffieSocial capitalism — the capital you gain through your ability to influence other people — isn’t a new phenomenon.  It’s just new to the masses as the result of social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The Whuffie Factor, by Tara Hunt, is an everyday guide to social capital.

The term whuffie, borrowed by Hunt for the book’s title was popularized by author Cory Doctorow in the book Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom: “Whuffie recaptured the true essence of money… By measuring the thing that money really represented—your personal capital with your friends and neighbors—you more accurately gauged your success.”

Whuffie is the embodiment of the adage ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know (and how much you can influence them)’. The Whuffie Factor explores five keys for maximizing social capital in online communities: listening instead of talking; being an active part of the community; being notable; embracing chaos and finding a higher purpose.

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Filed Under: Books, crowdsourcing, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mobile, Strategy, Web, wikipedia Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How to build social media programs with confidence

June 1, 2009 By 1 Comment

While most marketers recognize the importance of social media, many say they don’t understand it enough to integrate it correctly into their marketing strategies — and, those who say they understand it lack experience.

Most marketers lack confidence in social media. According to a recent study, 86 percent of marketers recognize Social Media as an ongoing trend, but lack the knowledge needed to effectively implement tactics. The 2009 study by McCann Erickson UK also found that two thirds of marketers admit that they do not have adequate knowledge on how to use social media correctly in marketing. Although the survey was conducted in the UK, there’s no reason to believe that results from US marketers would be significantly different.

Most marketers with confidence in social media lack experience. Given that social media is the result of emerging technologies, its not surprising that marketers are widely inexperienced. According to a 2009 study by MarketingSherpa, marketers that show confidence are typically overconfident. The survey found that two-thirds of marketers who work for organizations THAT HAVE NOT USED ANY FORM OF SOCIAL MEDIA consider themselves ‘very knowledgeable’ or ‘somewhat knowledgeable’ about this emerging strategy. Overconfidence leads to failure.

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Filed Under: advertising, crowdsourcing, Facebook, LinkedIn, Misc T, Strategy, Twitter, Web, wikipedia Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: The successful crowdsourced encyclopedia BEFORE Wikipedia

May 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

h2g2As millions of Douglas Adams fans carried a towel to celebrate ‘Towel Day’ and the work of their favorite author, it’s worth noting that the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy website (h2g2.com) is a wildly successful crowdsourced encyclopedia that predates Wikipedia.org by nearly two years.

H2G2 stands for ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘ – an unconventional guide to Life, The Universe, and Everything. This website is a longstanding user-generated encyclopedia project founded in April, 1999. h2g2′s inspiration comes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the best-selling book by Douglas Adams, one of the original founders of the site. Back in 1971, Douglas lay drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, thinking about the galaxy and how you might find your way around it. His solution, the ‘Guide’, was an ingenious device that offered advice about almost any place, object, entity or event you might care to name – all at the convenience of your fingertips. This vision is now approaching reality, both on the Internet and on mobile phones, in the form of h2g2.

A major difference between Wikipedia and h2g2 is that with Wikipedia there is no central control. Wikipedia does not have Editors and Sub-editors. H2G2 does.  Wikipedia contributors can edit and rewrite anything they see on the site for immediate viewing. On the H2G2 site, submissions are peer-reviewed and published by volunteer editors.

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Filed Under: Books, crowdsourcing, LinkedIn, Privacy, Web, wikipedia Tagged With: , , ,