Social Media Trends and Forecasts

Stickie Excersize - [words in quotes are stickies on the wall here. I'm trying to capture some discussion too. Add your stickies to the comments. Maybe we'll land on some discussion of those trends]


"Women as drivers of Social Media"
Blogosphere more diverse than other online channels. Due in part to accessiblity. You don't need to be an engineer, web developer, etc. MoveableType, Blogger, and many others of these blogging tools were co-founded by women. (from Elisa Camahort Page - COO and co-founder of Blogher)

Jenna Woodul EVP, Chief Community Officer LiveWorld, Inc - in previous forms, community was destination. Now it is ubiquitous, anywhere anytime. People don't need to challenge their identity by becoming something "Now I'm a Blogger" instead they can choose to enter into this slowly; lurking, commenting, posting, publishing, in steps.

"Making Choices"
Where we have more choices for how to live, communicate, shop, etc. our responsibilities also increase. We are allowed to control more of our lives, but it is scary too.

"Lurking"
How do we use this to understand what is being said in new media?
CDC has added blogs and discussions to their media monitoring. In other words, not what are people saying about CDC, but what are people saying about bird flu, pandemic, etc.

"Kindred Souls: Geeks and Wonks"
Activists are finding a strong voice online. When meeting offline, there is an awkwardness. Wonks enjoy using the medium when talking about how to affect change and how to talk about issues.

Clarissa: We have a tremendous number of activists who want to get together, however they don't always want to be the ones to contact the lawmakers. Clarissa is simply using the existence of the network to influence lawmakers. "We can bring this network to bear on issue xyz"

Break for Lunch...

Picking back up here...