Our first day at Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin

The European Web 2.0 congress by O’Reilly has started. After San Francisco and New York now beautiful Berlin is the place to be if you are anything close to a Web 2.0 geek. In the Berliner Congress Center hundreds of people come together to be part of a three day plethora of sessions, workshops, keynotes and networking events.

So is DigiRedo.

So what’s happening over there? Next to a way too small expo floor (last year much, much bigger) one can participate in workshops. Four different streams are available, all with a different focus on Web 2.0: Strategy & Business Models, Marketing & Community, Design & User Experience and Development. We are particularly interested in Strategy & Business Models, hence my first workshop was about ‘Building Successful Next Generation Web 2.0 Applications’, presented by Dion Hinchcliffe. Nice to know is that Dion is founder of the Web 2.0 University (didn’t know it exists). The titel of his presentation did not cover the content entirely. He went much deeper than only applications. Dion gave a rather comprehensive overview of Web 2.0 with some illustrative models.

Some relevant ‘take home messages’ from his presentation:

• A recent ‘discovery’ from David P. Reed (he did a lot of research on networks) revealed that social networks are the most important aspect in the modern internet economy. As any good researcher does, the discovry is now known as ‘Reed’s Law’.
• One of the Core Competencies a company should have when developing applications for Web 2.0 is to ensure control over unique, difficult to recreate information which becomes more valuable as more people use it. Yeah, made me think too but I guess the value of Facebook is a nice example of what he means by this statement.
• A nice twitch to look at Web 2.0: See data as the new ‘Intel Inside’. In other words, it’s about data, data and data. And do something useful with it is a good idea too

Yet another interesting development we saw here is the rise of companies providing platforms for enterprises such as Facebook and Bebo (social networks). So we have seen a presentation from TamTamy and have spoken to Jive. Also Yoolink offers comparable solutions, all which for the untrained eye do not differ too much.

Although SharePoint should give an answer to the ever increasing need for employees to collaborate online within their company, in many cases the usability of SharePoint does not quite meet the modern requirements of Web 2.0 user interfaces. Trust us, we have first hand experiences. Above mentioned companies do not only provide more user-friendly interfaces, but are specifically designed to establish communities internally. Personally we believe strongly in these platforms. Let’s face it, companies ARE communities and the time that employees accepted a plain screen with name, phone number and e-mail in Outlook’s Address Book are sooo over. Especially new employees (also known as the Millenials or the Generation Y-ers) have frown up with all the possibilities Facebook, wikipedia, blogging and techniques alike can offer. They now expect the same environment from their employers. Is your company ready for it?

There’s much more to share (for example, we were able to do a video interview with Tim O’Reilly himself) so stay tuned…

(Picture courtesy of MikiMedia)

Welcome, MikiMedia..

..in our blog.

MikiMedia joined us on our trip to the New Media Expo. Miki is a New Media Specialist in training, and hence she has a sheer interest in everything related to this exciting new world of communication.

For some reason she wanted to impress us since we received this video she took, showcasing our moves in Vegas. We kind of thought that everything what happened in Vegas, stayed in Vegas. But we are honored, so we want to share her video with the rest of the world.

Thank you.

Audio Indexing from Google Labs

They say great inventions are invented simultaneously around the world. So I was writing yesterday about a cool feature in Adobe’s Creative Suite 4 where video is transcribed and searchable, today I learned that Google has launched it’s Gaudi (Google Audio Indexing) in their Google Labs. 

Although still in it’s infancy the application looks promising. I can’t wait to lay my hands on the API.

DigiRedo does IBC

 

Being a New Media company it sometimes doesn’t hurt to have a reality-check. Of course we know that traditionel media is wrong. And that New media, authenticity and communities are the way forward. However, the traditional media market is still a big market. A bloody big market.

Off we went to Amsterdam, to visit the annual International Broadcast Congress 2008 (IBC 2008). This congress is surely the biggest in its kind and it almost occupied the entire RAI (Amsterdam Convention Centre). Hundreds of exhibitors were showcasing their goods to an eager and media-hungry audience. The four hours we had available were ample enough to skim through the first floor, let alone the second, third, fourth, fifth… IBC Japanese tour it was. Seen it – been there, check, next one.

We could only stop at a few places and having so many exhibitors that surely was a pitty. Not all was equally interesting (e.g. the ‘new media’ hall was only an extension of other traditional media gear) but we did found some stuff we’re sure we’re going to keep an eye on, such as this handy device for levering your camera. Trust us, after four hours of shooting you wished you had such a thing.

After the IBC we went to the first Final Cut Pro User Group Supermeet, also in Amsterdam. In about four hours various presentations were given on all things Final Cut Pro. The most amazing presentation however was from Adobe, showcasing their next version of Creative Suite. One of the features is the automatic transcription of the spoken word in plain English, searchable text. A very interesting development for podcast producers and webvideo content creators.

All in all a useful afternoon, although next time we’ll spenda bit bit longer on the expo floor, and prepare a bit better.

New Media Expo 2008 Interview: Robin Maiden (Delta Airlines)

Robin Maiden is a busy man. He not only is a pilot at Delta Airlines, but also a New Media Strategist and a Podcast Consultant. Now, being a pilot is a lonesome profession, and many of those pilots are a bit ‘disconnected’ from head office. Can podcasting help? Robin thinks it does. He started his one man show by providing audio podcasts to thousands of Delta pilots around the world (and now also Northwest), dealing with internal subjects pilots can relate to.

Still, using such a new technology, people have to get used to it. “It’s hard for somebody from let’s say the print world to say that this is a technology which can affect cultural integration through this new tool”, Robin said. “We’re not there yet, but I’m gonna keep doing it and provide the tools and opportunities and keep explaining my bosses that this is an extra tool on their toolbelt”.

Robin gave an interesting presentation on the New Media Expo 2008 and we had to chance to interview him. 

New Media Expo 2008 Interview: Paulo Tosolini (Microsoft)

Paulo has a vision. Paulo wants to make everybody within Microsoft to start podcasting. For that, he thought, I need a platform. And so it started. Last year Academy Mobile was launched to the sales force and this year the platform, named the creative title: Podcast Kit for Sharepoint can be downloaded for free as an add-on to Sharepoint. “You can think of it as YouTube within your company”, Paulo said, “where anybody can upload content. It could be training, best practices. Essentially it’s giving a voice to the employees”.

That the platform is a success is quite clear: “After one year we had 2,500 podcasts in the system, whereas we had anticipated on 750″, he said.

See an enthousiastic Paulo in our interview, when we met him again at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas.

 

Impression of the New Media Expo

Just finalized the impression video for the New Media Expo. Check it out:

The future of pharma e-marketing

Just read an interesting article on eyeforpharma’s social networksite about the future of pharma e-marketing. They talk about social networking tools and advanced physician portals, streaming videos and closed loop strategies.

Len Starnes, Head of Global Digital Sales for Bayer Schering Pharma indicates that: “Over the next few years, the biggest external impact will be seen on pharma’s interactions with patients, followed closely by the influence on the industry’s online relationship with doctors.” Even more interesting is that Starnes indicates that “social media also is poised to drive significant change internally in pharmaceutical organizations as they strive for productivity and efficiency gains”.

Well, we all know that this is exactly the message we have been preaching. Good to see that Starnes agrees with our vision.

The article continues with saying that US advertising budgets are changing, focussing less on television. Nothing new here, since less and less people are spending time behind this passive medium. Online spending therefore is “up with a lot of room to grow”. Could be. However I still feel that advertisement on TV is the same as advertisement on the web: make it too commercial and people won’t believe it anymore. Wake up, something is going on. Forget about the smooth and slick commercials, time for something different. Also in pharma.

The article then continues describing the power of online video, as explained by Kathleen Oneial, a former vice president of marketing channels at Novartis and Merck. “It’s a wonderful format for consumers and physicians and now that we have such widely available broadband, video will become a big part of how we communicate,” she predicts. “We’ve seen the profound impact of YouTube and others. Video will become an important tool for marketers and we’ll need agencies that have this capability.”

The article of course ends with the usual ‘it’s-so-difficult-in-pharma’ but “those innovative and dedicated enough to do it have greater competitive advantage”.

Say no more.

Full article here.

The New Media Expo – Our first impressions

Just returned from one of our most exciting trips in our relatively short existence. Started in New York with the participation of an Expert Group about social media in the pharma industry, followed by an intense three days of all things new media at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas. I will try to give a brief summary of our experiences, more detailed blogposts about the content will follow later, once we have edited our interviews.

The New Media Expo (NME) was located in the Las Vegas Convention Centre, home of about 20,000 expos per year. According to Tim Bourquin, Founder of the NME, some 2,000 participants made it it the Convention Centre this year. Each day there were 5 different streams to choose from, varying from Podcasting 101 to New Media Strategies. Since we were with the three of us we could, theoretically, split up but we often ended up in the same lectures since our interests are pretty equal. Fortunately we will receive audio files of all sessions later so we don’t have to miss a thing, content wise (why this is not a standard service in many congress organizations is beyond me).

The exhibtion floor was crowded with companies providing goods and/or services to new media producers. We do have a ‘30 Seconds Shameless Self Promotion’-video in the works, showcasing most of the vendors. Stay tuned.

For us last year in Ontario the focus was on learning; this year it was on networking. The lectures did provide a few new insights, but less than last year (we tend to believe that this is because we are learning too in the remaining if the year ). We met some great people and we spend more time discussing new media concepts and the future of these exciting developments (yes, and in the US that starts with an early breakfast meeting at 7:00 hours, thanks Paul)

It is good to see that internal podcasting got a place in the program too this year. Robin Maiden, a pilot of Delta Airlines did a presentation about his project within Delta Airlines. The project is quite similar to our internal podcast concepts and it is interesting to see that Robin is facing the same challenges as we do, as he discusses in our interview we had with him.

Paulo Tosolini, New Media Business Manager in Microsoft presented the final product he showed us last year: the Podcast Kit for Sharepoint. With this (free) add-on to Sharepoint, companies can create a ‘YouTube’-like experience whereby employees can upload company-related videos they made themselves. I was pretty excited when Paulo presented the concept last year and I’m pleased to see that Microsoft decided to make it into a commercial product. We have a vivid interview with Paulo about the Podcast Kit, so check back later.

Last but not least I want to mention Shwen Gwee, a podcast host of Med 2.0 and active in the pharma world as well. We got to know Shwen as one of the most extended networkers in new media and definitely sharing our vision for the use of new media in the pharma world. He has interviewed some interesting people in this industry, known to approach these new technologies with utter care. Watch out for our interview with Shwen as well.

René, Mikki, Erik and Shwen

Together with Paulo Tosolini from Microsoft, Robin Maiden from Delta Airlines and Schwen Gwee from Med 2.0 we are dedicated to give internal podcasting a more prominent place in the next NME.

We look back to a fullfilling expo with lots of ideas to bring home. It was motivational and inspirational for us. Although less ‘intimate’ than last year (Las Vegas is so big, at the end of the Expo everybody ‘disappears’ in the city) there was sufficient content and networking possibilities. We therefore highly recommend this congress to new media producers and related companies. Rumor has it that in 2009 it will be in San Fransisco, We for sure can’t wait…

New Media Expo takes off like a rocket with Gary Vaynerchuk

The New Media Expo 2008 took off like a rocket. First keynote of Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. Gary, a first generation Russian immigrant who loves the NY Jets and dreams of buying the tam one day, just gave a very energetic presentation. He produces and hosts a very successful podcast show on one of his biggest passions, wine. His key to success:

• Know your DNA, and do what you want to do
• Know the 2 C’s: Community and Content
• We all know it, Content is King, but don’t forget that Marketing is Queen and the Queen runs the household.
• Be everywhere, on every platform available
• Love your fans, and answer all their e-mail
• Patience, patience, patience and you will get there

His biggest mistake: his twitter name, garyvee. Why? Nobody can find him, it’s damaging his brand.

This kick-start sets the tone for the rest of the coming three days.