Jack Mason from IBM
In reference to my post below, I wanted to thank all the folks who came to Porter Novelli for a party at our offices last week with the good folks from the New York Semantic Web Meetup Group and who spoke at Web2Open the next day. I have some observations below as well as links from folks who participated.
First I want to thank my friend, Jack Mason (toon avatar pictured here) who has been kind enough to indulge my high-geekiness at a local pub in Maplewood where we have Guinness and talk about Augmented Reality, the Internet of Things, The Semantic Web, and whatever else we can think of until our brains hurt (at least mine) and I say something prescient like, "do you think that foam will look like a shamrock for a long time?" But seriously, he's been very helpful in helping me expand my mind towards all things digital and helping me think of what I might focus on in the panels we had last week.
Secondly I need to thank my dear friend Whitney Hoffman who gave me the two slots to speak at Web2Open. She is beyond a trooper in terms of her dedication to the Unconference movement and the Podcamp Foundation in particular. I have the utmost respect for her as her help in organizing these events is why they continue to happen (and when people like her actually do the work of organizing instead of just pontificating). In terms of Podcamp, I also got to see Chris Brogan, C.C. Chapman, Mitch Joel, and Julien Smith there which was great.
The Panels
First off, if you don't have a full picture of what Augmented Reality is, I'll give you a brief definition--it's essentially the overlaying of digital data on the screen of your mobile camera or computer. I've written about it a lot below so you can get more specifics, or you can also watch Jack Mason's talk on AR and The Internet of Things to get a sense of the power and repercussions of the tech on culture at large.
You can also check out the PowerPoint the folks from GE presented in terms of their Plug Into the SmartGrid Augmented Reality Campaign. Erik (Manley) and Michael (Eisenreich) also did an amazing job noting how the AR portion of the campaign drew attention after using some paid media, but the real ROI happened when earned media kicked in and they got such a MASSIVE response. A quote from them (and the video they showed about the campaign) says it well, "you know you're successful when people make videos using the technology you created for a campaign." Really amazing stuff.
My friend (she also wrote the foreword for my book), Lynne d Johnson (she's SVP of Social Media at the Advertising Research Foundation) sent on some links I've included here below:
- ARF's Social Media Council
- Her Android Meetup Group
- Highlights from the Esquire magazine Augmented Reality issue
- Top Ten Augmented Reality Advertising Campaigns
I'll update in a future post with other materials sent by panelists.
The Outernet Guidelines Initiative
One outcome of the panels was that Jack and I created The Outernet Guidelines Initiative which is a wiki I'd love for any readers/whoever to edit/contribute to. The Outernet contains ideas about technology like Augmented Reality, the Semantic Web, The Internet of Things, and so on. And Jack and I feel it's a good idea to talk about some of the issues that will arise around technologies rapid progression. I never lionize or demonize technology in and of itself, but it's important to see how things affect culture at large. Privacy issues, issues around commerce, etc mean that, as Jack puts it, "we're not going from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 but Web 20.0." I'll do my best to update it on a regular basis, and I'm hoping to speak more on the subject moving forward.
