Comments on: Real-Time and Social Networks Isn’t Everything

By: Dan Shapiro

Dan Shapiro — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 06:21:27 +0000

Just to play the counterpoint: maybe what we need is a great and timely way to inject the best ideas of days gone by in to the realtime stream. Think about how great newscasts are put together: mixed in with the breaking news there’s a piece about the anniversary of some event, a retrospective on the career of someone who’s passed away, analysis comparing a similar historical event to the current era, etc.

OK, maybe I’m just talking about NPR.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:59:56 +0000

Scott, you need to be on Intersect, so that I can “borrow” your story.

What you are describing — the claims of ascendency of real-time info versus search engines — seems mired in the American ethic that “there can be only one.” From the SuperBowl to Miss America, from the Academy Awards to this year’s poet laureate, from the WorldSeries to Survivor …. even the Mac/PC wars: these examples show that our cultural metaphor is “winning” as though one trumps everyone else. (Obligatory nod to The Matrix.)

The truth is messier. Just as radio did not “kill” newspapers and TV did not kill radio, communication channels morph and change over time. But each channel changed how messages reach certain sets of consumers — or, to flip that around — members of society now had choice in how to obtain information. [The fact that most get their "news" from TV I'll relegate to a conversation for another day!]

The emergence of geolocation-based information adds another filter to information that flows across the Net. I do believe it will become more important in the U.S. as more folks own smartphones with data plans. But that doesn’t mean that making your websites easy to use (a side-benefit of good SEO implementation, IMO) isn’t necessary or useful!

Evan’s point about discovery (the flip side of introduction) is also interesting. It’s the first time I’ve seen kindle as a verb.

By: Evan Jacobs

Evan Jacobs — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:51:35 +0000

It’s interesting to consider how radical new ideas might get introduced today. Certainly ideas with any “substance” would merit a book by the author of the idea but I wonder if we might first notice something original by the real-time attention it’s getting (e.g. “Whoa! Mind-blowing presentation by @kmarx at Ignite Berlin. Must check out his blog and kindle his book.”)