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Category: Bright Ideas

Melting Ice (07) – Final Day Recap

Ice_panel
The second, and final day, of the ICE07 conference saw some greatly involving presentations with audience members deeply interested in panel discussions. The morning kicked off with a panel discussion on citizen journalism – and challenged the conventional understanding of the term.

Panelists voiced the idea that citizen journalists are merely citizen observers. Equating the idea of citizen journalism to citizen dentistry – a common thread amongst the big-media represented panel was that journalism can only be done by journalists (with degrees), rather than Joe-Canada. What was evident with the panel, however, was that published comments were able to change the mindset of readers based on postings on online news outlets (like the Globe and Mail). 

Moving to the Sky Room for a panel titled Social Networks Go Mobile, Sean Kane likened the movement of content to mobile as creating “a lot of different content for a lot of different people.” This long-tail model was buttressed with Nick Patsiopoulos’ futurist outlook of networks – arguing that we will be moving towards a stage where large interactive displays will allow us to share our digital media and socially interact.

Perhaps the best panel of the entire event was the afternoon session titled Just A Pipe Dream? The Evolving Internet. The passionate panel was filled with mostly corporate VP’s, with apparent underdog Jason Roks passionately arguing his case for an open internet. In a discussion that should have been titled “Net Neutrality”, the panel dealt with copyright theft, and how big media is hoping to prevent it. On this topic Jason argued that “the creative people are not complaining about their art being stolen [he had been arguing that creators create altruistically], but it is the content providers that are the ones complaining.” With an audience applause, Jason responded to Mary-Ellen Anderson’s comment on users having nothing to gain that “you [media companies] see it as people with nothing to lose, I see it as people with nothing to gain.”

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American Idol Demonstrates Power of the On-Demand Consumer

I am addicted to American Idol. There, I said it.

Now that I have confessed, let me explain why I am hooked on this show. It is a great example of what I call the new "On-Demand Consumer" in action.

Every year (every season), millions of consumers vote for their favourite product (the singer), the one they want to be manufactured (their album produced and released by a major music label).

And how do these On-Demand Consumers vote? By calling a toll-free number or sending a text message from their mobile phone. It’s a simple – yet utterly brilliant – model. And it is being replicated all around the world with Canadian Idol, Australian Idol, Latin American Idol, etc.

Last week I was giving a talk on the On-Demand Consumer and I was asked what percentage of American Idol voting was done via SMS (text messaging). I didn’t have an answer at the time, but I did get one later.

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Eight Tips I Picked Up at PodCamp Toronto 2007

I am still coming down from PodCamp Toronto 2007. It was just that good.

Nearly 300 podcasters, podcast listeners (podfans?) and students of all ages descended on Ryerson University for this free, two-day event.

The one thing everyone had in common seemed to be their passion for this new medium. The excitement and enthusiasm of the whole affair fondly reminded me of my first Internet World Conference, which I attended in – oh my God – 1996 in San Jose, California.

Here are a few choice excerpts from the notes I took during the many informative educational sessions at PodCamp Toronto 2007:

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