Day 3. Day 2 was interesting, but perhaps not as interesting as day 1. Only a handful of interesting speakers, far too many people speaking like they were trying to sell their products as opposed to delivering something of interest to the audience in relation to their marketplaces.
I’ll probably download some more of this when I get back, but I’m starting to worry. This conference has a broad cross section of Australian IT professionals, journalists and “influencers” and yet in all but a small number of conversations I’ve had with people (say short of a dozen out of 50 or 60 people) they don’t get Web 2.0. They don’t get being part of the conversation. They’re still working from a mindset of one to many. Blogging in particular is something they can’t control, it’s something that opens them up for attack….and I kid you not on that last one, I’ve had people here tell me that they want nothing to do with blogs and blogging because of this perception they have which sounds a bit like the perceptions and beliefs corporate America held in 2004. We are that far behind. And yet it gets worse. The Web 2.0 session day one, the first speaker responded when I asked him what his firm was doing that was Web 2.0ish he responded with “affiliate program”. I’ve heard professional journalists say that Web 2.0 is basically all smoke and mirrors and there’s nothing to it…I’ve heard others say that they DON’T have to engage their customers because their product speaks for itself…..
jeezus. We might be more than in trouble, we could actually be in deep sh*t. It’s not good. It’s not good at all. Maybe the cross section of people isn’t representative and I’m just hearing a non representative mob of people, and yet as I go through the position titles on the participants list I’m seeing guys (and gals…although not many) who should know about Web 2.0, who should know the benefits on being part of the conversation, that participation therein actually helps build respect and trust in the marketplace.
But the converse could be that by living Web 2.0 (taking bloging as a part of Web 2.0) maybe I’ve surrounded myself with people who think the same things as I do, and hence I’ve become a cut down version of Mike Arrington with an Australian accent: a walking, talking advocate for the good in Web 2.0 without being able to look at it from a different perspective.
Food for thought.
