Keith

Moderate thc community and enable brands to be comfortable in the social media space and participate. 

George

Built the platform on a SAAS model. 

Fostering the community and how do you know when community is broken out? 

Keith

People behind the scenes that drive the community. Seeded the contentent actively and getting the discussion going amongst themselves. Community is growing the community and it’s self sustaining. 

Andrew

When the community is not engaging with the brand and size does not matter. It’s the level of engagement that is a measurement of success. What most companies are doing wrong is not identifying who the evangalist is among the company. 

Geroge

Have a built in community right away it’s the shareholders. It’s a different problem and once it takes off, moderation becomes an issue. 10% human 90% technology. Everyone starts up in the mailroom and they can level up. Once at highest level then this individual becomes that administrator and manage this community. This highest level is reached through ranking etc. 

Influencer concept. Finding those alpha members between the community. That is the subtle innovation that is missed. 

Andrew

This is not mass marketing and has to be explained. 

Keith

There is always is the alpha pack leader in real life. Bring them on board and the rest is easy. 

George

Build the better mouse trap and go to weaker competitors and research who the alpha people. Send them a direct message with a link to a 2min video why product A is a better experience. If they are won over then getting their followers is easy. 

Do brands have to participate

Keith

I had a great party last week but no one show up. If you are not going to participate the don’t play in it. 

George

If you are spending a lot of time participating in the community then there has to be a busines model for it. It’s a 24hr job not 9 to 5 as you have to be paid for it. If you are not paid for it then you will loose interest very fast. 

Agencies looking to do this work, what is the ROI

Andrew

This varies by the brand. If you decide what the purpose it then engage the community. The purpose to have fun and meet other people and drive them to off line events. The metric is getting better as more measurements takes place. 

Keith

Cineplex The ROI to the movie watcher was watch movie, review it online and win points etc..

Audience

Geroge

Once the community goes then it takes a life of it’s own and manage it from making sure that it’s within your values and not getting toxic. Still have to participate. 

Keith

We have had to re-seed content, new discussion points for communities that are stagnant. 

Andrew

The brand should be involved all the way through. The discussion boards could turn into something very irrelevant. 

Motrin Moms, Tropicana were these a minority speaking or represent the masses. So if the community goes in another direction from where the companies want to go. 

George

People have to voice opinions and told them that the feedback but maintain allegince to the community. 

Keith

There was a very vocal group on the CBC community. Getting these people to agree to one thing for the greater good. You don’t want to kill the community. The issues were addressed with these groups and set paramaters so that everyone agrees. 

Should these issues be addressed online or offline

Keith

Took these offline. 

Sometimes people want to be heard even though the brand does not agree with them. 

Audience

Want to build their own social network. Go where the users are. When is a right time to build a new space for communication rather than the existing ones. 

Andrew

Understand what the brand is and why not tap into the existing resources on the web. So could build a social network on their site but still participate elsewhere. Why would they be talking about your brand online. So if it’s a food product then building a recipe site is not the best option however participating on those would be a better idea. 

Audience

If you start a social media plan but not going to continue it then dont’ start. 

George

Advices customers to wait until they are ready as opposed to get the revenue. 

Keith

Cocoa Cola – some fans had set up a page for Coke and they are concerned with this. So we are working with coke to make sure that the content is staying true to the brand. When someone disagrees don’t wipe it out. Take all feedback good or band and make it better. 

Andrew

You can start a community. Rachael Ray show has their own social networks and they share pictures of their kids. 

Keith

When a community is built focus groups could be used to create better data. 

David has been following MESH on Twitter, @mayormiller. I am not a geek and just turned 50. In 1976 I wrote my first computer program on punched cards. Learnt how to use the slide rule and then moved onto the SR-50 Texas Instrument calculator.

I am a Mayor of a city where public transit has GPS. How the web is changing government for the better. Most transparent government in the country and the 6th largest government in Canada. The pulic get’s that same information about the budget as the government does.

The way people relate to government has changed because of digital media. Traditionally people could learn and read at the library but not they can look for jobs, connect with the government via the computers there.

People would like to pay for parking tickets from home 24hrs a day. Stories break on the web on Twitter etc. The web is an archive therefore the facts have to be accurate. The city of Toronto does not need to rely on the media for news.

Mayor Miller is tweeting while he speaks and yes he writes his own tweets. This gives the people a window into the office of the Major. He uses Twitter to tell people what are happening in Toronto good or bad.

What happens in front of newspapers is the most interesting stories of the day but with Twitter it’s all the stories. He does try to reply to people who ask questions or for help.

Sent photos of the Queens Quay restructuring on Twitter for people to see and give their input.

The web has brought about significant change in government and here are some changes.

311 – call centre will go live in June 24hrs. Solve problems and answer questions and track issues through conclusion. e.g. pothols

Challenge – take this data and figure out which utilities created the pothole problem

Nextbus – gps on public transit

Parks & Recreation – low income families can register online for free

Employment & Social Services – online

22 new RSS feeds for news and events

Facebook public profile – live updates to city problems, recuriting, links to documents

tofire – Twitter

Change Engine – geo-aware issue tracking

www.toronto.ca/open to launch in fall 2009

Early days of government 2.0 but in 5 months they are going to open up their data.

Some data wil be static, direct feeds some raw data.

See Mesh scribble for liveblogging.

It’s still about story telling and I have a job because of television. What does branding look like? How do you build a brand in a digital world? It’s tough to be just digital. Pepsi has been a brand to enabling things – Madonna when she was a rebel. 

How do you go about setting the objectives? Intent to or preference. South by South West in Austin, the goals was build relationships with story tellers and digital influencers. Don’t be disruptive to the environment. 

It’s a fun time for marketers today as lot’s to experiment with. 

Digital has to be at the strategy table from the get go. It’s about finding the right mix of talent to be part of the team. 

Pepsi just went through a re-design and it was not received well. This new logo was launched to social media first and not traditional. Get early warning from Twitter. So work with full on co-creation. 

Bonin runs the digital centre of excellence and develop best practices as they go. 

Launched new Pepsi logo and the friend feeding. The goal was to co-colloborate with other social media players. Have not put enough resouces on these programs yet. Would have a better editorial plan and resource plan. 

Metrics are based on impressions, share voice, advalue, potential intent. All of these are important. Competitive comparative is used a fair bit. Want to make sure that they are heading the right direction and ahead of the curve. 

Listening, understanding conversation. Did you learn about customer engagement from the Tropicana incident. Twitter is a good early warning system but the whole campaing should not be based on these only. Doing market testing and listening to customer feedback via Twitter and others. This discussion was for the re-design of the Pepsi logo. 

Use Radian6 and other social media measurement tools to track these conversations and mearure the ROI on these programs. 

The days of huge programs one per year and not feasible anymore. Now can we go far on Facebook, deeper on Twitter etc. Multiple goals across programs. 

Walmart is out there fast and furious and Pepsico needs to catch up. Building an audience takes time which eventually effects retailers and their buying. 

The Doritos commercial for Super Bowl was user generated and a successful co-creation program.

For details on this session check out the live blogging.

Summary from Twitter

motionblur: “People like talking to entrepreneurs, not some PR person.” – Howard Lindzon #mesh09

hmorrison: Less than 3 percent of companies ever started have venture backing – start ups can succeed w out it #mesh09

thornley: @pedosky on Canada’s venture sector “The venture industry is a north american industry. The ideas flow south. The money flows north.”#mesh09

isfan: RT @mdufort: “If your company is doing well, the VCs will show up”:@pkedrosky Mesh Keynote #mesh09

isfan: raising money at the wrong time can be a killer. distracting, demoralizing and u focus on the wrong thing.be “customer funded” #mesh09

Marketing_Mag: Where’s the money flowing in online venture cap? “Clean tech” -@paulkedrosky #mesh09

TinaSantiago: Tips for entrepreneurs: “Stick to something you know you know, what your passionate about and work with one customer at a time” #mesh09

SandraMacdonald: RT @meshcon: Being able to filter the noise + focus + being able to be as fearless as a teenage poker player = success in VC #mesh09

gerrykirk: To get attention of investors, use a little ‘foreplay’ on their blog (commenting), Twitter. Share your ideas, nurture relationship. #mesh09

JenniferJohnstn: Good to hear in this economic climate. “There’s always money for a good idea.” Paul Kedrosky, VC #mesh09

andiargast: Patience, timing, getting to know people before pitching them. Sounds like VC advice is life advice. #mesh09

gerrykirk: Be patient with getting investment, may take 6 months or more to build relationship w/ investors #mesh09

martinwaxman: Howard Lindzon says entrepreneurs should focus on building their business one customer at a time #mesh09

RIGHTSLEEVE: from @guykawasaki http://adjix.com/arzu. interesting VC article complements current conversation at #mesh09 this morning with @pkedrosky

Remarkk.com OmakaseGroup.com

The government is not the web. The government is the only use violence to enforce law and order Can have only one government at a time. So how can govt. be the open web? If they are so different in character then how then can they be open. 

Authority (Political) = power + legitimacy

Within a tribal system the tribal leader has this power and the power to exercise it. In the west we have constitutions and rules to elect someone to power. It’s the belief within the system that makes it safe otherwise we have revolutions. 

Accountability = calling to account

Tribal war lord does not face the ballot box but within his system he has a from of accountability. Public official is held in account to answer questions. 

Responsibility = who and how assigned?

Politicians are very concerned with maintaining controlled incase something does not work out. 

Participation = who gets to participate and how?

The ways that laws get made. New generation expects to participate. 

Transparency = more than FOI requests

People want to know more. 

Efficiency = decisions per hour? services delivered for taxes raised?

How does increased public consultation, participation increase the cost. 

Effectiveness = what’s the outcome?

Can hyper scrutiny grind down government to a halt. 

Public services – just make it work

Just want the system to work and how can open achieve that outcome. 

Public Policy = the making of the sausage

Move it towards the public good through elections. 

Social Innovation = the open lab for public good

Happening outside the government. Do ideas that great outside in the world and govt. can act as the investor to scale. How does that relationship gets established. 

Peer to Patent

Backlog at the patent office so crowdsource a group of patents. Analyzing them and enabling to get them through the process a lot quicker. 

NewZeland Police Act

Community can sign up and modify the act. Live document and passed the law. Took down the wiki after a week. 

Octo.dc.gov

Publishes RSS feeds. Tied gps of snow plough to Google Earth. Do what you want with it.

Same with 911 for Seattle. 

211 online

An alternative to 911 so find resources that are alternative to 911. 

Food Onland Ontario

Goes beyond that but interacting with people. 

Is your government open with a twitter account?

Groups work to define it. Follow the conversations online.

Twitter is great but IRL works (in real life).

Rachel

How did social media impact the election south of the border?

Micah

As a by product of an election that goes on for 2years before the campaign gets organized. Massive amounts of people that don’t only watch but not participate actively. The big change from voter generated content is a whole new factor that is beyond the control of the campaign. Obama was very effective use of YouTube over 2k of campaign generated videos. 150million views of videos. McCain and Obama on video sharing 1.5Billion views. One out of ten are involved in political activism. These groups are now capable of creating large field ortanizations, generating huge amounts of huge donations, act blue, over $85Million to over 80 candidates. 5Million views of Hilliary Clinton video, Hillary as big brother. This derailed her campaign very early on. 

The big change is the voter generated content is the wild card and surf those waves. Obama girl and Yes we can song are voter generated videos that went viral. 

ç

The Will am I one was embraced by Obama and defined them. Twitter is being embraced by journalists and the Denver convention demonstrated this. Obama campaign wanted to text everyone about Bidden but CNN beat them to it. They are still trying how to apply it beyond the campaign. Who was going to break the news was interesting the campaign or traditional media. 

Andrew

Have less positive news from the Canadian front. The bloggsphere has tremendous job of disrupting the information. When you look at the political campaigns in Canada nothing significant has happened. It’s a more efficient way to get their propaganda out there. The Globe & Mail, Macleans, CBS have good websites for social media. Interesting data on the blogsphere. The but is we simply took the defects of media and social media and made it worse. Cease on goofy things on somethings on someone’s website. The campaign and media folding on themselves. This was very irrelevant to the population at large. Bloggers have used their power in effectively. A lot of finger pointing and less civil and finger pointing. Did not get a lively debate.

Micah

The internet is a reflection of society and maybe this is a reflection on the Canadian political situation. Don’t have a compelling messenger and message. The American experience is different at the moment. The changes in power and government is the underlying factor. It’s nice to see the political process open up a little so that ordinary people have a voice. At the end of the day people care if there are improvements in healthcare, education etc. Govt. is not as a place where tax dollars go in and services out but can improve how govts. work. So think of it as a platform of engagement to make things work better. 

Obama has won and is talking in a revolution in how the internet, data and people to make things better to make govts. accountable. For Canada the real opportunity is to fix the election but has to be more responsive to the edges of the population. 

Rachel

The ability to self organize is new. 

Micah

The cultural change is beginning. It’s a two way street and some of this has to come from above. We the people will take this public data and share it. It’s our information and we should get our hands on it to do wonderful things. There is a great expectation that this will get solved from above. 

Glynnis

Watching Twitter, e.g. John McGain is the #1 twitter in DC. This raises their accountability. With Twitter it’s done in the public sphere. Obama is inspiring, however beyond this the social media aspects of this campaign, the larger population seems accessible to all. 35million people watched Obama’s financial press conference. Obama quoted non convential media during this press conference. 

Andrew

It’s driving the two systems apart. We have a more top down media and political culture. A lot of open access is making people spin their wheels. The hollywood will I am video was trash. 

Micah

You have to get the good with the bad so you are going to get junk. When you open this system up where anyone can publish. Better examples Josh Marshall won a prize as he did distributed journalism. He does it again and again. Thousands of pages posted online, help us read. The political media is a hybrid form. Lot’s of political journalists are less arrogant and more accountable to their audiences as the truth squad is watching them. 

Audience

Pre and post election, with the user generated and political generated content how do you deliver a political ideology in 140 characters or less. 

Glynnis

People tended to watch the 45min videos. This allows the voter to read the 2k page report. Our voters getting into it further? Yes there are more options. It allows people to get more informations and more sources and not rely from the morning paper and evening news. 

Micha

We are in the internet ADD from political to Briney. We stopped paying attention at the elite level. There is hunger for rich detailed content. The social media makes it possible to go back and watch all the speaches. 

Andrew

The most interesting discussions on the Right the left all said Obama was great. The opportunity there and people have to walk through that door. 

Audiences

Difference in the political blogsphere in Canada and the U.S.A in population. Social Networking reduces the gotch ya moments and everyone has skeletons in their closet. Everyone went drinking when they were young. 

Andrew

The Canadian blogsphere are not developed as much at the U.S.A. There has to be a cultural shift from talking to people that are like you to people that are different from you. We have a more compressed time for our campaign vs the states where it’s a couple of years. 

Rachael

Social Media has not come up as much. On Facebook changing their middle name to Hussein. The NY Times did a story about this. That had a two part effect but advanced that dialogue about this sensitive issue.

Audience

If it does not get picked up on McLains etc. is it not relevant. 

Glynnis

It’s more about how long traditional media picks up the issues from Twitter etc. They are far more sensitive to missing a story that everyone is talking about. 

Audience

The blogsphere is stuck. Is there not a structural problem to making the investment to structure social media so that the more positive changes can happen. 

Andrew

The U.S.A has a 9 month debate on the budget in Canada we have a day!! 

Rachael

What can be done that is low cost and inclusive. Start a hastag, it’s as easy as that. Change can for example and people can talk about your issue. 

Micha

Twitter is still niche and the idea that the public is aware of this. It’s a sub culture that is spreading. In a year Twitter is not going to be there so let’s talk about the power switching away from hierarchies and moving into the hands of more people. Twitter is one cool way to do this. Politicians will learn to ignore Twitter blow ups like they did the Blogsphere. We have to cease it from them. 

Andrew

It all comes from substance. Don’t find use for Twitter as it takes time to develop thoughts. 

Rachael

Political talks on television are more reactive. 

Micha

When you live in public and share little 140character thoughts is the cumulative of this formulates what things are interesting. It’s useful for this and new. Consertives had don’t go hastag on Twitter for offshore debate. Liberals participated as well on this, thus new dialogue. The internet makes this possible in a new way. 

Audience

Alarmed to dismiss the Canadian blogsphere.

Andrew

If you noticed the hundreds of thousands of people who joined Facebook to debate specific political issues. Meshed against the potential we are 70% empty. 

Glynnis

The states has been through a huge technological, political and economic change hence the difference. 

Audience

So much of the talk has been about the messaging via social media. Is it the issue about the platform sucking so bad or about the politicians engaging at the edges. 

Andrew

There is a lot of chicken and egg going on here. The institutions and the culture has to change before you can get trashed. We need a more ideas based culture. 

Rachael

I use social media platforms suck a lot of time of my day both professionally and personally.

Justin

It’s harder for classrooms to be relevant today as traditional methods of teaching. Teaching and learning are being re-defined and lot’s of reflection in this regards. 

Clare

Gap is really wide and we are on a cusp as there has to be more way to make technology relevant today. Serious consequenses for our society and schools have a big roll to play in reducing that. 

John

Most interested in exploring education can be a big business. Education in the U.S.A. is larger than military. Globalization effects, e.g. in India 400Million students. 

Global ethos amongst kids as this will help the world. Walled gardens unto themselves are no more.

Clare

University’s have laptop schools and can have different types of interactions with mobile devices. A potential for this type of uptake and it’s not difficult to maintain. 

John

Changes in education has lagged behind in terms of technology education. Trickled down effect until much later. Worked with Educom, largest education company in India, billion dollar company. One laptop per child was promoted from them, old technology but packaged technology. 

Key challenges in adoption of new technologies and ideas

Justin

The instructor/teacher has to be let go of. Connected idea, network learning, groups and sourcing when we need it. Connecting people and ideas. I talk you listen is how it was done and still being done. Talk, here are some tools, social networks, lead them to tools and guide and mentor from the side to shape ideas. 

Audience

Colloborative gaming environments are like that. 

Claire

The assesments are changing and incorporate it colloboratives. The bigger problem is to incorporative them into their teaching. It takes a long time to make this change and has to be iterative. Online, face to face bits as well. Educative is conservative and does not change quickly. There is not just enough research on these emerging technologies. It takes a while to convince people that this is useful. 

John

What is pulling us back from that, assessment and credentials. Doing multiple choice tests are still necessary and it’s harder to do when you have colobrative groups. Businesses pick it up quickly. 

Audience

Extremely advanced tool to personalize to students. Where do teachers learn about these tools, practices and bridge this gap. 

Justin

I evaluate these technologies and blogs that explore this. It’s so slow it’s in a transition period. People can’t see the differences as of yet and not metric to measure it. One school at a time and broadcasting successes, bottom up rather than top down. 

Claire

People are suspicious about selling something. People don’t know how to evaluate this. People are not technology adept as well. 

How to get people over this technology hump

Justin

Soft skills and ongoing mentorship. Design makes a huge difference in terms of intuitive and easy to navigate. Wikispaces has taken off in education. Started off with free and now subscription. Now critical mass of educational wikis that have been use. Success stories and examples are key to success. 

Claire

Try something together works well. Showcasing resources that have been used and sharing them. Locally works really well and they feel more comfortable to work in a smaller group. 

Twitter questions

Do you see more education happening outside institutions since people connect on the web.

John

In India have to spend a lot of their income on education on tutoring and extra resources. The text and print industry is huge. IIT have 500k apply for 8k spots. A lot more people do a lot of learning in the walls outside the school.

Based on our education in Canada, how do they compare to the rest of the world. 

Learnall.com. Worlds largest GMAT & SAT question bank. Solution is discussed and 40 comments on how to solve this best. The willingness to study with others. 

If people have access to standard education might miss out due to lack of internet resources

Clare

Schools using the web are plagued with issues with privacy and have forced schools to shut most of this down. They have to use the web and are leaning towards intranets between schools. Kids who don’t have internet access at home/school are missing out. The public libraries are giving access to computers to help bridge this gap. The internet makes a much closer relevance with the whole world. 

Audience 

Access is very difficult. Communities outside city centers have dial up, satellite is very expensive. The divide comes from this lack of high speed access in rural communities. As more media go under and go online they are cut off further. 

Claire

Virtual school and connectivity issues are being worked on. 

With all these challenges, opportunities from private sector. What are good next steps to make a change

Justin

Single biggest impact is giving them an authentic audience and voice. Getting feedback from people that they know or share ideas beyond their schools are very powerful. Copywrite issues do come into play. Googleing the school should have links to content that they contributed towards learning. 

Claire

A lot of expertise within the parents that if shared could be very powerful in partnership with teachers. 

John

Consider education, it’s a large industry and very stable industry. The higher education is very exciting right now as when people loose their jobs they go back to school. When things are good it’s good and when things are bad it’s very good. Look internationally and the possibilities are big. India is 1.1Billion people vs 35Million. 60Million people online. China has more internet users. 

Twitter questions

The role of students in all of this. 16 year old student is doing teach the teachers in his schools. 

Claire

User generated content is huge and there is a huge role in this. Have the students to input into their learning and have to have a flexible approach to teaching.

Audience

Why is it so hard to adopt these technologies?

Claire

Everyone competing for their discipline and the solution is to infuse technology with the learning. It takes time to learn these technologies and be comfortable with it. Education is slow to adapt. 

Justin

Each teacher is to teach their subject not technology. All these new tools have to speak to these tools and enrich history, math learning. The content is very accessible but need to create a workforce with these skills. 

Justin

Schools are about teaching students how to learn but they are their own enemies with it comes to technologies. How do you empower people to think and be creative is a challenge. We don’t have a way of quantifying this therefore scary for everyone. 

Audience

Attempted to invite local teachers to join a group about social learning and they don’t have time to participate. There is no time to learn something new. There’s summer!!

Claire

The high schools lost a year and have to learn a lot more in a short amount of time. Teach key principles and don’t know what how to pick and choose. Teachers would do research with the private sector and now they are strapped for time. 

Justin

If you look globally teachers are finding each other and connecting, so look beyond your school.

JodiEchakowitz: Non profits take note: you can’t bond with a brochure or a statistic. Need to put a human face on what you are doing. #mesh09

CandiceShirreff: What’s worked for kiva.org? Know your mission, stay open, iterate, connect individuals and Just Start! #mesh09

erin_bury: We can see each other truly as equals -all carry different impressions of who we are in the world – false dichotomy of poor and rich #mesh09

meshcon: Seeing everyday people as business partners rather than a charity case – Jackley hoping Kiva can help ppl see each other as equals #mesh09

Gave us an update on her impressions of poverty from childhood into adulthood. Her biggest learning moment at the Centre of Social Innovation at Stanford. Moved to East Africa to learn more about poverty and micro financing. Most of the stories were cliff hangers where people got a little capital to get their business going and then getting their family out of poverty however they needed more capital to get them out of this hump. 

March 2005 went back to Uganda and work with 7 entrepreneurs and put up a website. Asked friends and family and raised the funds. These funds were re-paid thus began Kiva. October 2005 was the launch of the website. 

Now at $1Million a week from all countries all over the world. Work with microfinancers all over the world 

Seeing a person and not having the gut reaction of fear and not able to help. Now it’s hope and a way to help them. 

Have made the resources available to spread the worlds.Kiva friends, Kivapedia, Facebook, KivaTV all made by the crowd and not controlling this and celebrating. There is an office in Second Life. Do not facilitate the YouTube. 

Then – Today

Old guiter – optional lender fee

couch – float

free pizza – breakage on gift certificates

student loans – special campaigns

savings – big donations

If a business failed then an update goes on the website on why it failed. Run out of loans as there are more lenders then receivers. 

Always focused with individuals to establish a connection and a real story. 

Side story on the photos if people smile in the picture they get more funds fast. If it’s a urban setting then harder to get a loan. 

Allow us to see each other in unique ways and more as a business partner as opposed to poor. It’s great that we can think of them as people.

paiiige: i will never understand why laptop bags continue to be given out at conferences people bring their laptops to… such a waste. sorry #mesh09

drewmack: @AjayShroff I haven’t seen anyone naked yet… yet… #mesh09

danielho: @erin_bury RAW lasagna??? #mesh09

osephfung: @SusanArts LOL I’m not – he gave us the total (487) over a 20 min presentation – my math is rustic, but laptop has a calculator  #mesh09

drewmack: Crap. Took two minutes to actually pay attention to the keynote, and you bastards have written 47 messages tagged with #mesh09

erin_bury: @mikeminer I see you < stalk > (stole that style from @davefleet)#mesh09

cuthbertsteel: RT @drewmack: Looks like the mesh Q&A microphone jumped the shark in 2008. Replaced by Twitter. #mesh09