MediaJoltz

There has been a lot going on in my life for the past few weeks about communication and I’d like to touch on what has happened and what I think it means…
GwavaCon with Gwava TV: Gwava a Novell partner who works with Groupwise had a conference called GwavaCon at the end of January in San Diego/Del Mar. I and my husband took part in the GWAVA TV crew. We’ve done video for GWAVA before, but this was a little different because we attempted to broadcast live some of the classes and the keynotes. I say attempted because we still experienced problems with broadband speeds-but eventually found a solution.
What this means: This means that those who aren’t able to make it to a conference aren’t going to be left out. It means that there is content about/for GWAVA and Novell Groupwise supporters that is available across the world. The ability to do this just 5 years ago would have cost thousands upon thousands of dollars. Granted, like I said the internet wasn’t the greatest, but that is something that is being improved upon every day.

Passing of a Prophet: President Hinckley, 15th Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints passed away on January 27th.

What this means: Its not necessarily what happens now that was so significant, it was the way this news was communicated. At approximately 7pm MST he passed away. At 8pm my husband, Cammon, received a text from his cousin. Not but a few seconds later I received a text from my brother. And then it was interesting because at the time, we were in the middle of a dinner presentation at this conference and when I looked around I saw those who are of the LDS faith checking their phones as well. There are tons of stories circulating about how Facebook groups were created in a few short hours and the message went out to wear your Sunday best that Monday morning.
How fitting for a church leader who stressed Media Relations and is credited with bringing the church out of obscurity. Thousands upon thousands all over the world wore their Sunday best that Monday-and it was all because of the technology we have been blessed with.

The Pulver Show with Jeff Pulver: Today I participated as long as a could in the Pulver TV show with the guys from Qik.com-live broadcast video from your mobile phone.
What it means: One thing I remember is the London Bombings and how a lot of the footage shown were from people’s cell phones. This Washington Post article talks about how immediate we were able to see what was happening. And not even just video, but with the school shootings happening across the country, how people started blogging immediately. And take a look at the political campaign here in the U.S and how things are changing because the power to produce is no longer just with the big media giants.
What it all means: Because you no longer have to pay millions of dollars to have an online presence, people are able to capture live life moments and share them with the world. This ability to broadcast one’s life is huge. I wonder how I will communicate with my son.

So before a seminar or presentation you normally find me scouring the Internet for information about podcasting, blogging or new media in general, so I can tout what is going on and why people need to be a part of something big.

Recent discussions though, have led me to look at those statistics more carefully. In my research I have found that while it seems to be growing, we who are of the “new media” space are a very, very small number.

According to Internet World Stats Website there are 6,574,666,417 people in the world today and 1,244,449,601 people have internet access. Normally I say take a look at this stat and tell me if your company is doing something to reach that amount of people who have internet access. But today I ask you, did you realize that only about 19% of the world has internet access?

Here are some stats and the websites I found the stats on the popular applications people are using:

There are 506,331 users of twitter as of Oct 11th 2007, according to http://www.twitdir.com/. Out of those how many are actually active is still unknown. And only 506K when there are more than a billion people who have access to the internet is not that many.
34 million active members worldwide are using Facebook according to the Wikipedia article on Facebook. Once again I would normally say something like “34 million people, how would you like even a piece of those people to become your friends and get on your mailing list,” or something like that. And yet 34 million is still comparatively small.

Now for something thats still very new, we turn to Second Life. According to the description on their webpage only 9,980,489 people logged into Second Life within the last 60 days.

Noticed how I said only. Believe me, when talking to those outside the fishbowl, I normally talk in an excited voice and act like this is huge! But to those of us in it, how many new people do you continue to talk to on a regular basis, compared to the “handful” of regulars?

If you go to the Pew internet Research Company and type blogging in the search function you get a list of different reports. Report number one and six specifically drew my interest:

From these reports you will find these stats:

Eight percent of internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog. Thirty-nine percent of internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs – a significant increase since the fall of 2005.

Only 8% keep and 39% read a blog. So if you are reading or writing or doing both, boy are you leaps and bounds above more than half of the population of the U.S. Makes you feel special and lonely all at the same time, huh?

44% of adult American Internet users – more than 53 million people – have contributed material to the online world. Content creation in our definition includes creating a Web site, posting material to another Web site for work, family or another organization, posting materials to a personal or another person’s Weblog or online diary. It also includes posting photos, artwork, writing, or audio and video files to the World Wide Web, to a chat room or discussion or newsgroup. The average number of content creating activities for a content creator is relatively small – 1.7 activities – and that suggests the most Internet users are content for now to find a small number of ways to make their contribution.

This stat is the one that got me. “Content Creation” meaning doing pretty much anything to add to the internet, including creating a website-and only 44% of American Internet Users have done this? Way to go those of you who have bravely gone this far!

Some 13% of Internet users have their own Web site. Most do not refresh the material on their site very often: 10% of Web site owners post to their sites daily or more often, but the plurality (42%) update their site once a month or less often.

Okay, for those 13% of you who have a website, lesson to learn-the people who are online are dynamic. Unless you provide fresh material, they have no reason to come back.
I know that stats are not the end all, and there are so many reports that contradict each other, but come on, we have to understand that no matter what the stats say, 9 million or 20 million, the fishbowl is still very small.

I really like what Tom Webster Vice President of Edison Media Research has to say in his analysis: New Podcasting Statistic-Is the Glass Half-Full, or Half Empty? and encourage you to read the whole thing. One comment he makes I have heard myself in my podcasting seminars:

“Though long-time podcasters are tired of hearing this, and probably rejected it two years ago, there is no question that a good chunk of people who might otherwise be interested in podcasts believe that an MP3 player (and, specifically, an iPod) is required to listen.”

I don’t know how many times people have said in seminars, “but I don’t have an iPod.”   It really is amazing.

So what we need to do to help is make new media easy for the non-tech person to access it. Don’t start talking about how they can subscribe to your podcast through an RSS that automatically downloads the episode to their computer through an aggregator… you’ve lost them already! Tell them to go to the website and hit play to listen to your new show, or to read an article you wrote.

Stop talking about podcasting, blogging and new media like it is some foreign thing that only you understand and start talking about your show, or journal-use words people understand, make it simple.

What if the Internet crashes?  And I don’t just mean for a day or two.  What if for some bizarre reason, the Internet one day just doesn’t exist.

Let me take a step back.  This post was inspired by a conversation I had with Chris Brogan yesterday, so the original thought comes directly from him.  But he asked a question that got me thinking deeper.  What if Facebook just crashed one day?  Would you be okay with that?  Would you still be able to keep in touch with the friends/clients  you have made?

And so my mind started turning and the topic got more and more exciting for me.  Just think about it.  I remember when not TOO long ago :0)  I was only allowed to carry a cell phone with me when I ventured the two hours it took to get to my softball travel team practice.  Now, I can’t leave home without it-I don’t even have a landline!

Dave Delaney from Two Boobs and a Baby +  recorded a video about how he felt when twitter went down for maintenance.  At the Podcast and New Media Expo-I went a whole day without being able to get on the internet from my computer, but I was okay because I had the web on my phone/pda.

We are so dependent on the Internet for connections, are we ignoring vital face to face connections that can also help our company, home and lifestyle?

I belong to several networking groups in my local community and I remember at one lunch the director said “I want to make sure you develop deep relationships with the people of this community such that if we close our doors tomorrow and never have another event again, you have no problem continuing those relationships without us.”

So what if the Internet crashed?  Where are all your relationships? Are you speaking to all of your customers through one medium?  If the Internet crashed would you still be able to talk with them?

What if we are talking about a single application like Facebook, or email-what if your customers stopped using an application-are you able to talk to them through another way?  Are you everywhere you ought to be?

What about personally? Do you have people you can turn to right in your own neighborhood?  Do you even know your neighbors?  Not that I’m promoting solicitation in church, but do your fellow friends at church even know what you do?  Why not?

How about the friends you know online.  Do you have a way to get in touch with them?  Do they know how to get in touch with you?  Is it all simply Internet based or have you taken that online relationship and made it real through mail or through the phone?  I’m not saying to broadcast your phone number out to everyone, but those you really are connecting with, what are you doing to make sure there is an ongoing dialogue no matter what.

Are you mixing the medium and/or crossing platforms?

Okay well so there are a lot of gadgets like, better and worse than, the Treo. That is not the point. The point of this post is to clue you in on how to be productive wherever you are-and you can turn that productivity on or off.

I have a Treo. I’ve only had it since May. The phone I had before that was a regular Samsong camera phone which did nothing for me but take and send phone calls. And for those of you new to the blog, I really am not a phone person. For some reason I like email way better. And now, I can get email on my phone. If someone calls, I also can just hit “respond through text” button that sends them a text message telling them why I didn’t pick up.

This is a great device-and yes there are lots others out there like it, ie the Blackberry and the iphone, being the biggest two I have heard of. I use this piece of equipment that fits in my pocket as a calendar, a camera, a video camera, my email station, my web browsing device and countless other things. There have been several times where I’m out and about and wanted to get a picture of something and thank goodness I had the camera built into my phone.

Take this picture for example. A homeless man sitting out in front of a Uncle Sam decoration that says “Proud to be an American.” I just couldn’t pass this up:

I even got a picture of a goat in the backseat of a car once, but my phone died and I never got to transfer that picture to a computer before it did.

Anyway, don’t be afraid of a device that can do more than make that phone call. Your life story is being played out everyday-take some pictures and video to remember it!

(What are some of the best situations you were in when you wished you had a camera?)

I need to have some fun with technology and blogging and my husband and I thought of a fun way to invite our friends and family to join us for the games of our favorite team, the Brigham Young University Cougars!

So we headed over to Blogger  to create a website for the Randle Stadium where everyone has a front row seat.  This blog is an excellent example of using pictures and video in a blogger account if you’d like to see a real life evolving example.

So do you have a party coming up?  Are you a sports fan?  How about an event someone across the country can’t come to?  Use some video and a blog to share with others.  Create a little fun and introduce your family and friends to a little technology in their everyday life!

This could be for work or for our Technology in Everyday Life Series… This shows you how to create an account and upload a video onto Youtube.

I use this process to embed videos onto this site. I also use this to post videos onto youtube to let my friends and family know what I am up to!