How Soon Is Now?

Accelerated exponential change meets the mob.

How Real-Time Information, Crowd
Empowerment and Location Awareness Is
Impacting Business, Consumers, Marketing,
Media, News, and Communication
Presented by Gregory Markel
gregory@infusecreative,com
“The illiterate of the 21st century will
not be those who cannot read and
write, but those who cannot learn,
unlearn, and relearn”
-Alvin Toffler

I might add…
Quickly.
 My goal for this talk and
presentation…
Simply, that you might see the same tipping point that
I see…the speed, risk, and reward for business and
communication are all accelerating rapidly, spread by
technology and empowered crowds like never before
in our history…understand it and prosper…ignore or
deny it and suffer the consequences…it is that
profound.

Gregory Markel
 Real-Time Information
Social Graphs & Community/Crowds
Location Aware
Sudden Disintermediation

Phrases all, that are new to most of

us and suddenly, ubiquitous…how?
 What happened?

What has brought about the sudden

acceleration of change?
1977 + The Internet + Moore’s Law.
1977 impact. The first generation
to come of age with the Internet.

The Millennials turned 20 amidst the dot.com explosion and now they’re 32, the
movers & shakers with money and power.
18 to 32, Gen Y behaves differently. They think differently.
They consume differently.
They expect big value propositions.
They have short attention spans.
And they’re wired…
 As a result of Gen Y’s
Digital Comfort & Net Majority…
Accelerated & radical change.
50 & 100 year old businesses are being challenged.

Google.com/insights
 And What is “Television” now?
Accelerated & radical change.
50 & 100 year old businesses are being challenged.

Google.com/insights
 Yes, rapidly evolving technology and adoption
enabled by falling cost and availability
empowers people with an exponentially
growing list of consumer and communication
options…

But there’s something else that’s new…very

new to humanity…
Ubiquitous, real-time, location aware
multi-node connection to global community.

This has never happened before and as a result, we are changing.

Recommended Reading: http://www.herecomeseverybody.org
The man who made Gmail says Real-Time is next
Location Awareness
The way in which we consume information is
changing…it is accelerating and fragmenting…
We scan and we move on.
We spend less than 10 seconds on the average web site.
We watch TV while surfing the Internet and texting.
We read 20% of a web page and move on.*
*Study by Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer

We now prefer “streams” and RSS “feeds” of information…

Hmm, “Twitter Stream” “RSS Feed”…sound reminiscent?

Iconic streaming binary code image from “The Matrix”

 Real-Time, Community, Location Aware,
Sudden Disintermediation
The following slides represent significant tipping
points within the last 12 months…

A word cloud for “real-time web” illustrates the “volume” of word taxonomy: bigger=louder
 Integrated Internet TV is Here.
The top selling LCD/Plasma manufacturer in the U.S.
is embracing Internet TV. This will accelerate real-
time information expectation, community interaction
and fragmented viewing behavior.

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/how-vizio-went-from-nowhere-to-number-one/
 Newspapers:
Nytimes.com “Skimmer” Prototype
Built for fragmented viewing habits.

http://prototype.nytimes.com/gst/articleSkimmer/
 Movies: The “Twitter Effect”
Real-Time info + Community Example:
 Government: Twitter enables revolution
Real-Time info + Community Example:
The State Department asked Twitter to postpone a
scheduled site maintenance that would have shutdown the
most powerful communication tool for protesters in Iran.
 Instant Brand Reputation Destructor:
YouTube
Real-Time info + Community Impact on Brand
Reputation Example:
 Instant Brand Reputation Destructor:
Google.com
Real-Time info + Community Impact on Brand
Reputation Example
 Instant Brand Reputation Destructor
Empowered Crowds: Google SideWiki
Real-Time info + Community Example:

http://www.google.com/sidewiki/intl/en/

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/biz-tech/sidewiki-causes-a-pr-headache-20091113-idlp.html
 Television: Fragmented Viewing
The challenge: We’re viewing less of more.
 Google gets fooled by Real-Time
When Michael Jackson died on June 25, millions of people flooded onto
Google News to find the latest information about what had happened.
The spike in traffic was so massive that Google suspected a malware
attack and began blocking anyone searching for "Michael Jackson."
It's a funny story, but it illustrates how the Web is changing.

Wired.com on how the real-time web is leaving Google behind.

 Google: Moving to Real-Time Information
"Real time information is just as valuable as all
the other information, we want it included in our
search results.” – Eric Schmidt
Google Founder Larry Page on Real-Time Google: “We Have To Do It”

http://blog.moreover.com/2009/10/29/google-talks-real-time/
 Even Google AND Microsoft agree…
Real-Time info + Community is here to stay:
 Even Google AND Microsoft agree…
Real-Time info + Community is here to stay:

http://www.bing.com/twitter Google “Past Hour” results

 Location, Location, Location…
The Foursquare Smartphone App revolution
combines real-time information with social
community with location aware devices…

http://foursquare.com/
Founder Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPtujpFHb_U
 High Frequency (Real-Time) Trading
It is the hot new thing on Wall Street, a way for a handful of
traders to master the stock market, peek at investors’ orders
and, critics say, even subtly manipulate share prices.
It is called high-frequency trading — and it is suddenly one of
the most talked-about and mysterious forces in the markets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/business/24trading.html?em
 The New News…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/join.html
News + real-time + community
The Huffington Post Integrates Facebook Connect
& Contextual Twitter streams into the news
Publishers Impact: Ebook Preference Growth
Real-time availability & social community
(reviews) fuel increased consumption while
challenging traditional margins
 Iphone Impact: Search, Content & Apps
• Real-time, social/community & location aware all in one device (+apps)
•Google says the iPhone and Adroid are dramatically accelerating mobile search
like never before. YouTube says mobile uploads are up 400%
•Smartphone owners can now upload video, audio and images to Youtube,
tweetpic, tweetvid and others via the device OS and apps like twittelator and

http://www.stone.com/Twittelator/
 Record Industry Impact:
Sudden Disintermediation
The Challenge of Real-time availability and
community driven distribution and influence
 Record Industry: A New Model?
Real-time availability (streaming) plus community
“Because music is social, Spotify allows you to share
songs and playlists with friends, and even work
together on collaborative playlists”

http://www.spotify.com/
 Sudden Disintermediation: Redbox
Real-time info and availability plus community and
location awareness at a radically reduced price is
challenging perennial movie studio DVD business
models and long standing gate keepers…

http://www.insideredbox.com/inside-redbox-iphone-app-almost-ready-testers-
needed/
 What IS “Broadcast” in 2009?
The Presidential Inauguration, U2, & Michael Jackson Premier
 What IS “Broadcast” in 2009?
Infuse Creative Case Study: World’s first Twitter, Ustream,
Facebook, YouTube & Skype 24hr Telethon: Raised $30K
Many of the social media platforms utilized in the event were linked together to cross-populate to exponentially increase the reach of each
tweet, tweetpic, image, audio and video content piece created or broadcast, for example; Ustream populated YouTube which populated
Twitter which then populated Facebook. 12Seconds populated Twitter and Facebook, and so on.

Some of the key statistics and info from the event include:

-- Social Media Platforms used: Twitter, YouTube, 12Seconds.tv, Ustream,

Facebook, Blip.fm, Twitpic, Blogspot, Bit.ly, Twibbon, Tweetmeme,
Real-time + Community
Tweetlater, Tweetdeck, Tweetstats, Socialmention, Seesmic Desktop,
Tweetie, Hootsuite, Digg, Propeller, Kirtsy, Stumbleupon, Reddit, and
Widgetbox
-- iPhone apps used: 12Seconds.tv, iPhone upload to YouTube
-- Skype was used to enable live call-in
-- The event started at 5:30am ET on the 25th and ran through 6am ET Incredibly
-- $28,000 was raised (Enough for 2 PlayPumps Water Wells)
-- 56,400 Google & Yahoo results with event keywords
-- 19,734 Ustream views
-- 9,723 twitpic views
-- 6,626 bit.ly clicks to the Ablog and donation were tracked
-- 6,164 YouTube channel and video views
-- 5,798 12Seconds.tv views
-- 2,820 pre-event press releases picked up by Google
-- 346 Donations were generated ranging from $5 to $5000
-- 299 twibbon supporters
-- 260 links for the event found at tweetmeme
-- 53% passion, 13% reach across social media & 17 to 1 positive www.infusecreative.com case study
sentiment at Socialmention.com
 As you have seen…Change is here.
Change is accelerating…to…real-time.
Real-time information
+
Empowered community
+
Location Aware
+
Sudden disintermediation

= new challenges, but also new rewards

Businesses, Media Companies, and Individuals that wish to be successful in this new
reality will do well to incorporate the following suggestions into their business
plans…you will increasingly find them present in emerging companies that lead and
succeed moving forward in this new real-time, community, location aware and
sudden disintermediation driven world…
 My suggestion for success
in a real-time & social, location aware world:
1. ACCEPT THAT CHANGE WILL BE SWIFT AND CONSTANT FROM HERE ON OUT: Learn, unlearn and relearn
quickly if you want to compete
2. LESS CAN EQUAL MORE-AVOID DISINTERMEDIATION: Choose business and revenue models that can thrive
with lower margins to entice a larger audience to meet volume driven revenue goals, accelerate adoption, put
crowds to work for you, and make sudden disintermediation from competitors less likely: Example: Google
(Paid Search), Apple (Itunes)
3. BEST OF BREED OFTEN WINS: Strive for the superior user experience
4. HONESTY & TRANSPARENCY IS ESSENTIAL : Be honest in your offering and communication because real-time
information + empowered crowds means you’ll get caught and suffer pain if you are not
5. GIVE IT TO THEM NOW: Deliver on real-time demand
6. COMPETE WITH YOURSELF: Anticipate disintermediation and constantly strive to innovate and lead…
complacency=death
7. TRACK THE MOVEMENT AND DIRECTION MOMENTUM OF THE CROWD AND YOUR COMPETITORS: Look for
and anticipate key tipping point indicators. Constantly update your tools. Avoid operating in a vacuum
(Assemble the key RSS feeds you should read EVERY day!)
8. INTEGRATE COMMUNITY: Use the crowd to do your work and sell/work for you, and importantly, prepare for
both good and bad crowds (Uxepected Event & Disaster planning)
9. MONITOR REAL-TIME CHANGE: Keep your eye on now to know what’s coming tomorrow
10. INCLUDE A MOBILE/SMARTPHONE-LOCATION AWARE STRATEGY: Location aware Smartphones will be the
hub of everyone’s existence
11. AND OH, LEARN CHINESE ;) Google’s CEO says Chinese will be the majority language on the web within 5 years
 Suggested FREE
Real-Time Social Media Monitoring, and RSS tools
• www.Google.com > Show Options > Recent
• www.Search.Twitter.com
• www.Socialmention.com
• www.Oneriot.com
• www.Topsy.com
• www.Digg.com
• www.Tweetmeme.com
• www.Trendistic.com
• www.Newssift.com
• www.Silobreaker.com
• www.google.com/trends
• www.mashable.com
• RSS Feeds/Reader: Assemble RSS feeds important to you, your business, and scan/read for at least 5-
30 mins per day…it will give you a knowledge advantage over most of your competitors. I use Shrook
for Mac: http://www.utsire.com/shrook/
 Thank you!

gregory@infusecreative.com
www.Twitter.com/infusecreative
www.infusecreative.com