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.
Duncan,
They usually fear what they can’t control or understand – in regards to blogging. So instead they rubbish it.
“they DON?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢T have to engage their customers because their product speaks for itself?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ǭ¶..”
Fuck, that’s not just not web 2.0 that’s very old marketing and really an insult to consumbers, who are more savvy than ever before.
At the end, you’re talking about maybe living in your own echo chamber.
So what is it? Is Australia behind or will we never go full on with web 2.0 style conversation and engagement?
If the crop of Aussie IT media think like that I can’t see much future – unless more “citizen” journalists take over the reigns and leave them in the dust.
Australia is too beholden to mainstream media for their IT / Web 2.0 fix – there’s not enough independents out there to shake it up a little.
Hey Dunc … sorry, I forgot to close off the italic tag. hope I’ve fixed it.
this stuff takes along time. the amount of effort that has gone into getting a few percent of advertising budgets into online in Australia, has taken well over a decade and another to come. it just dont happen that quick : esp for something niche like blogs.
Why is this a problem?
This is a opportunity for entrepreneurs to enter into the market and create businesses that do understand the economics behind web 2.0.
I would be more concerned if this situation was causing these startups to have issues acquiring seed capital.
The transfer of wealth from publishing houses to ‘bloggers’ has already begun, and will continue regardless of weather the publishing houses stick their heads in the sand or not.
Ian: 2.0 startups have enough problems from other reasons in getting capital without this affecting them.
Duncan: I can assure you that the journos at Influence were pretty much representative of the senior echelon of the Aussie IT media.
It’s true that both the Aussie MSM and the local 2.0 blogosphere are their own little cyclotrons, but Influence was the first step in melding them together, I think. Phil Sim is going to be instrumental in the education of both sides to the position of the other.
None of this surprises me. I guess it’s a little jarring to see it up close first-hand but I’m yet to see any evidence of Australian companies or journalist being able to wrap their head around what “web 2.0” might mean. To be honest, I’m not holding my breath waiting for any improvement either.
Mr Angry – I haven’t read one Aussie journo get their heads around all this web 2.0 stuff in any meanginful way – so you better not hold your breath. 😉
As for companies, anyone worth their salt will skip Australia (why waste marketing anything here)and head off to the States.
Usually what happens, is that when they succeed overseas we Aussies come a jumpin’ on board 🙂
I wasn’t in the Web 2.0 sessions at Influence. I make my living writing about enterprise tech, so I was in those rooms.
But I think it is wrong to say the IT media do not get blogging or Web 2.0.
Leaving aside the massive definitional problems around Web 2.0 (is it blogs, is it collaboration, is it AJAX apps, is it Google, is it software as a services rented by the likes of Amazon, is it all of the above?), FWIW I reckon the IT media is yet to understand what makes it a massively different or more worthwhile addition to their wares than the message boards that they have run for years alongside their web properties and which gave their audiences the chance to have a conversation about the stories posted there.
Those message boards seldom attracted anywhere near the audiences their dead tree editions have.
Of course I’m a Web 0.5 guy (I surfed in Lynx, once) and a media dinosaur unaware of the meteors so what would I know? And I do realise that the rising generation will get this far more than I ever do. Which is what I blog about.
Cool!
Nice
Sorry 🙁
Nice…
Cool!
interesting