Bringing Social Media & TV Together? Yes. Soon.

Although they aren’t launched yet, Starling.tv could be a game changer technology. They’re about to bring broadcast TV to Social Media and Social Media to TV. Exactly how we don’t know yet (though a chat with someone there left me grinning from ear to ear.)

I’m sure many of you reading this article have “tweeted” about the Olympics while watching, or a hockey game or footise or added a comment on Facebook or MySpace about a TV show you’re watching, have watched or are about to watch. Am I right?

So, the concept of Social Television is today, rather amorphous and undefined, but people are trying to make it happen. From our research we think this is closer than many think. Today, the platforms are fairly distinct.

But take for example MTV and MuchMusic with their channels that show txt messages from viewers and use txting voting to vote up a selection of videos. This isn’t just for the benefit of the audience; it tells MTV what’s hot and helps for radio play and lineups on other shows etc.

A whole conference on this topic took place in London this past March. There are hundreds of bloggers talking about it. And then there’s Boxee, enabling you to bring Social Media onto your television set.

Don’t be surprised if one day in a few months from now, you’re “tweet” or “like” from Facebook pops across a screen bottom of the show you’re watching.

So;

1. Will it make us tune back more into television to see if our tweet makes it there or our friends are hanging there?

2. Will we want to connect with social networking capabilities on NBC, BBC or CBC if we see others there who like the same shows?

3. Will TV finally have a new way of driving ad revenues or will it be micro-payment subscriptions?

What do you think?

Is The Social Web The Seventh Sense?

Smart phones with cameras and video cameras, email, txt and Web-connected to Social Networks, Twitter, blogs…everything. You can publish text, audio, images in seconds. It can spread across the Web in moments. One of the most common definitions of Twitter is that it is a live-feed of what is happening.

With so much interconnection (2 million emails per second, 55 million “tweets”/day, 55 trillion links and over 100 billion clicks per day) and activity, does being connected enable us to develop a Seventh Sense of the pulse of humanity all around us? There’s 8 terrabytes of traffic per day, 65 billion phone calls/year and 2 billion location nodes activated with over 600 billion RFID tags in use…and that was in 2007.

I think we’re getting there. Media channels are combining into one single platform (more on that later.) So does this mean that the more we’re connected we are connected to a new “sense”? Perhaps called Humansense? or maybe Global Awareness? Human Awareness? Cognitia?

Will such a sense of awareness lead us to think on a more globally aware level? I like to hope that means more chance for peace and the elimination of racism and prejudice.

We are so thoroughly connected now. We can easily disconnect. In fact we see this in generational terms; the Boomers are less connected that the Gen X, and they less than Gen Y and the Lost Generation…but we want to connect, because we want to learn and grow. Perhaps mental Darwinism at play?

Can you imagine yourself withut the alphabet and writing?

(Author: G. Crouch)

Social Media Tools of the Future

Just for fun, I was pondering what types of Social Media services there might be 5-10 years. So here’s some and maybe you’ve got one or two to add?

Privacy Chip: This will be a “chip” or chunk of software that automatically defines your privacy settings with any new Social Media service you sign up for, like the Disqus system for comment moderation on blogs. You pre-program your settings and it ensures only certain information is public.

Social Chip: Embedded data on your Social Networks and services, with privacy info defined by type of service (kind of like the Poken now, but embedded into your mobile and credit/debit cards with permission marketing levels.)

The Permission Card: Maybe it’s same size as a credit card, or maybe it’s loaded into your mobile device – essentially, it details what marketers can and can’t do with your contact info. You set the preferences on how marketers communicate with you, if they behave you can “rate” their behaviour.

The Anonomator: A little piece of bot software you control. It can go out and destroy any content across the web or a connected device that is negative about you. It coincides with your Privacy Chip for validation and Social Media services must comply….so when you discover those pics of you drunk at the party…

The One Device: It’s your mobile phone, includes your social chip and privacy chip data and can allow you to connect to publicly available terminals anywhere and has all your data there – text, audio, video, pics. It has your credit and debit card data, even your ability to vote in elections…everything digital.

Insta-Rater: Having lunch at a decent place and want to rate it? Aim your One Device at the code on the wall, rate it by stars, add a text note if you like…voila! all done, no registration process, your device handles all the validation, and it works with AR (Augmented Reality) services as well.

Have any ideas for the future of social technologies

(Author: G. Crouch)

On Authoring Our Future & Social Media

If you’re over 30 then I’m sorry to tell you that you’ve “read” your cultural future. If you’re under 30 then you’ve got the sheer delight of “authoring” your cultural future.

If you’re over 30 then you’re spending less than 20 hours, on average 12 hours, per week online; in Social Networks, on blogs, Twittering etc. But if you’re under 30 then that average starts to climb. Under 20? Research shows you’re spending more than 50 hours per week online.

Under 20? You’re creating content on a scale never before known to humanity. Video, photo’s, text. You’re writing the culture of the future. Suddenly, since I’m over 40, I feel rather ancient.

What an incredibly powerful concept; to have the opportunity to write your future culture. Those that succeed in the future, will be able to work in collaborative groups. You’ll come together on political and societal issues. Today, it’s all new and it’s about entertainment, silly simple things.

But then, you’re going to want to start changing things. If we think the Hippy Movement was something powerful, well, we ain’t seen nothing yet. Think anyone under 20 will listen to us 40+ folk? We see this in our ongoing research into Social Technology usage as well. Powerful.

Think about that: Youth is writing our cultural future.

What do you think? Are you helping to write our cultural future?