The new conferences – web enabled

 

I visited eComm in Amsterdam last week – a conference on emerging communication with a high-paced information packed program. I enjoyed it but afterwards reflected a little bit on how internet ‘backchannels’ are changing the way we experience these conferences.

A couple of years ago, when twitter was still very young, Mobile Monday in Amsterdam used a twitter backchannel that was projected behind the speaker. I loved it although I can imagine as a speaker it’s actually less so (especially when people tweet that what you are saying is nonsense or make jokes that make the audience laugh while you have no clue). I started appreciating it even more later when it allowed me to follow conferences while being at my desk in the office, without visiting the conference itself (perfect in combination with a live video feed).

Now at eComm there were several backchannels; of course people used twitter for which I set up a search in tweetdeck, but we also used Google Wave at this conference and a public Skype chat/channel for eComm. I followed them and participated in all.

And man!….was that exhausting. Switching between the channels, reacting, tweeting, listening and watching all at the same time while also making notes on my pc. It was too much!! I had a hard time actually following the people in front of me on stage.

It made me think about the backchannel phenomenon. On the one hand it is great and supplies non-visitors with a way to follow what’s happening but making notes and looking at the backchannel does distract from the most important thing; the presentations / demo’s etc themselves!

Maybe it’s time for a backchannel aggregator to read comments and a automatic transcription of things that are being said and get some time back to actually listen :) I’ll be the first customer!

My iPhone as mobile television

 

Since I bought my iPhone last April I have been playing extensively with new apps and trying out dozens of podcasts. I cannot express how much I love this device and would almost (not totally ;) ) say it has become an expansion of my body; I have it around and in use constantly.

But not only has it become an extension of myself – even more it has become an expansion of my television; or maybe I should say visual media consumption; I actually don’t watch that much television in the traditional way any more; only the news in the evening, sometimes sports and maybe a cool series (like Flash Forward which I’m following now). And even there I turn to the web more and more (50% of FlashForward episodes I watched via the web at a time that suited me better). Most of my video/visual consumption is now online or on a DVD.

With more and more podcasts being video, and some real quality video’s being published as podcast I have noticed that I’m using my iPhone more and more as my viewing device. I regularly watch TED.com video’s, the Onion news or even episodes of ‘Lost’ on my iPhone while commuting to or from work, while travelling or in the evening in bed before I go to sleep. All in all it has become my mobile TV.

Now when I was travelling in Korea and Japan in 2007 I spotted many people watching television on their mobile phone. With mobile television launched in some countries I still have to spot the mobile TV viewers in Europe or the US (I’m sure they’re out there though…somewhere…hidden). Maybe iPhones and Android phones will be the enablers of mobile TV here, although more in a time-shifted way as my current usage on my phone.

If anyone has interesting suggestions for good podcasts or Youtube channels to watch on my iPhone – please leave them in the comments section; I will reward the best suggestion (if there is more than 1 person submitting by November 30th) with a Apple Store voucher of 5 euro!

Please find some of my favourites below – enjoy the video’s! They can be found via iTunes:

• - TED.com (my absolute favourite)
• - Mobile Monday Amsterdam
• - Onion news network
• - Wired Science Video Podcast


• - Lost (the series – paid unfortunately)
  

Nice Paypal video on the future of payments

Another one in a series of future visioning video's - Paypal's view on the future of payments.

A Nokia vision on Augmented Reality

A nice video by Nokia on a possible Augmented Reality future (or mixed reality as they call it)

eBay selling 65% of Skype

The big news this week for me was the sale of 65% of the Skype shares by eBay. Good news for Skype I think - it will take some pressure off that comes with being part of a listed company. And the investors that have bought the 65% seem to be a really great group of people with a lot of experience, knowledge and vision to support Skype's growth.

It's a mixed end for eBay; I think they were under so much pressure from the general analyst and media mood on the skype acquisition which only a sale could solve. On the other hand they say goodbye to one of their growth engines. I feel it's smart that they have kept the 35% and will make a very nice gain on that when they sell that in a couple of years.

There was a lot of blogging coverage - I felt the following two were interesting enough to mention; Michael Arrington's post after the sale was confirmed and the New York times analysis by Joe Nocera which I found interesting.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/01/hey-ebay-actually-did-ok-with-skype/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/technology/companies/05nocera.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Back to Blogging

It has been more than 20 months since I've posted on this blog - so I'm guessing I've lost all or most of the few souls that did visit here. Nevertheless I'll re-boot and start writing again; about ecommerce, innovation, trends and online marketing - but also about communications, futurology, social media and anything else that interests me.

I'm thinking of giving the blog a new name, moving to Wordpress and giving a total overhaul - but I'll just start by putting words back on the page.

I'll continue to blog in english - any dutch readers will be able to understand I assume and will of course open up my thoughts and ideas to a wider audience.

Let's see where we'll get from here....

No news during my INSEAD year

I'm off doing an MBA at INSEAD in France and have discovered that keeping my blog updated is impossible while being there. I will be done studying by the end of december 2008 and will resume blogging from then on!

YBay Merger becoming more realistic?

 

eBay and Yahoo have announced they will let Yahoo Auctions Japan work with eBay in 2008. For the full post see here on AP and some new speculations on a Yahoo eBay merger here on Fool.com