The Syndicate Conference has been interesting, if uneven. Highlights so far: Jeff Jarvis and Steve Gillmor.
Jarvis conducted a "Donahue-style" conversation. Here are my takes on his key ideas: many people, caught in the dilemma of how to make money from syndication, are constrained in their exploration. Because, "we all live at the edge, not in the center," many are uncomfortable. In addition, authoritarians of all stripes are put off by the notion, not only of the wisdom of the crowd, but also the taste of the crowd. I'd venture that Pauline Kale would not have found the popularity of You Tube clip viewership an effective recommendation system! But today, authority resides in strange pockets of the network.
And, according to Gillmor, one source of that authority flows would be our "gestures." Think of gestures as the trail of breadcrumbs we leave as we move through the virtual world. Imagine your every click, page view, pause being recorded, not by the NASA (which probably does) but by yourself. Now, what if you (instead of Google) owned that data? What if you wanted to sell it to others? What if you wanted to use it to tell people what you're interested in, and what you're not. Now, what if you and several million of your best friends aggregated your gestures (anonymously, of course) and used that data to influence the development of products and services? That's the power of gestures, and we're just starting to see their possibilities. Gillmor's playing a leading role in revealing them.
Oh, one more Syndicate highlight: getting my picture taken with Rocketboom's Amanda Congdon! Oh, her talk was good, too!
She's not as tall as Heidi Klum.
Heh heh
Posted by: Kristin | May 17, 2006 at 03:47 PM